22:53 4 August 2020
Polish countrymen sensitive to risk of poverty
The percentage of inhabitants at risk of poverty in rural areas in Poland is still high compared to the economies of the European Union. Despite a marked improvement in the last five years, it is still 21.4 percent (3.2 million people).
In 2015-2019, the number of people at risk of poverty in Poland decreased from 6.6 million to 5.7 million, and the improvement was noticeable especially among the inhabitants of small towns and rural areas (a decrease by 800,000 people). However, the percentage of people at risk of poverty in the Polish countryside is still the tenth highest among the 27 EU and UK economies.
Higher values are achieved by the Baltic States and countries with a lower level of GDP per capita (Bulgaria, Romania). Among the economies of the euro area only Spain has a worse result, and similar is Portugal and Greece.
The problem of the income gap between urban and rural areas remains a challenge for the entire EU. Over the past decade, the percentage of people at risk of poverty in rural areas has increased in 11 out of 27 surveyed countries.
