Nearly 2.7 million people – just over a quarter of Portugal’s population – are at risk of serious poverty and social exclusion.
The data comes from statistical office Eurostat, which situated the exact numbers at 25.3% of the population in 2012. This is marginally higher than the European Union average of 24.8% and up from the year before when 24.4% of Portugal’s population was in the same position. But still, Eurostat concludes the picture is better than it was in 2008 – when the all-time high of 26% of people were on, or approaching, the breadline.
To reach its grim conclusions, Eurostat took three factors into account: people at risk of poverty, people ‘severely materially deprived’, and those living in households ‘with a low work intensity’.
The first category registered the gravest results – nearly 18% of people are at risk of poverty. Further statistics show 8.6% of the population is severely materially deprived and 10.1% live in households with weak work intensity.
Elsewhere in Europe, worse results were recorded in Eastern European countries, such as Bulgaria (49%), Romania (42%), Latvia (37%), as well as in Greece (35%). The best results were found in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic (both 15%), Finland (17%), Sweden and Luxembourg (both 18%).
