Drop of 9,000 among people at risk of poverty and social exclusion

Households with incomes at 60% of national median income climbs slightly to 69,000 persons

The more serious severe material deprivation (SMD) rate among persons living in households stood at 4.4 per cent – which is 3.7 percentage points less than in 2015
The more serious severe material deprivation (SMD) rate among persons living in households stood at 4.4 per cent – which is 3.7 percentage points less than in 2015

The number of persons living in households whose average income was below the monetary poverty line of €8,143 – or 60% of the national median income – has climbed slightly to 69,920 persons.

A household’s median earnings is based on the size of that household, and determined according to how many of those members are in gainful employment.

The results of the 2016 European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey puts the at-risk-of-poverty (ARP) rate at 16.5% of the target population, just 0.2 percentage higher than 2015.

The figure translates into €14,657 for persons living in households with two adults and one dependent child.

In 2014, when median income was €12,787, there were 65,987 persons in households whose total income – spread individually among members of a household – would amount to some €7,600 individually; in 2015, national median income increased to €13,493 with 68,658 falling on the poverty line, whose household incomes fell below the 60% threshold of €8,096.

The more serious severe material deprivation (SMD) rate among persons living in households stood at 4.4 per cent – which is 3.7 percentage points less than in 2015.

The three most influential variables that contributed towards this decrease were the ability of households to spend one week’s annual holiday away from home; ability of households to keep their home adequately warm in winter; ability of households to afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or vegetarian equivalent every second day.

In a statement, the government said that the number of people living at the risk of poverty and social exclusion had now fallen from 99,000 to 85,000. “Under a PN government, the figure climbed from 81,000 to 99,000 in 2013 when it was committed to reduce this figure to 74,000 by 2020. Labour has reduced poverty by 14,000 people in three years.”

At 20.1 per cent, the at-risk-of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) indicator registered a decrease of 2.3 percentage points when compared to 2015 levels. The AROPE indicator provides the share of persons who are either at-risk-of-poverty, severely materially deprived or residing in a house with low work intensity (aged 0-59). This resulted in a drop from 94,000 people in 2015 to 85,000 people in 2016

The share of persons at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion also went down for those living both in households without dependent children and with dependent children. The AROPE rate for these two household types stood at 19.6 per cent and 20.5 per cent respectively. In fact, households without dependent children registered a decrease of 1.3 percentage points and households with dependent children a decrease of 3.4 percentage points compared to the AROPE rate estimated from 2015.

The AROPE rate only increased for persons aged 65 and over, reaching a rate of 26.1% for this age group – an increase of 2.4pp.