At risk of poverty

As at risk of poverty a person with less than 60% of median income (applies median has to manage) the total population. This income limit is known as the at- risk-of-poverty threshold . It is a relative income poverty . By applying this definition uniformly in Europe, the degree of poverty risk in the individual European countries can be compared with one another.

Definitions in the European Union

In the Europe 2020 economic program , in the section "Poverty and Social Exclusion" , the European Union has set itself the goal of reducing the proportion of people affected or threatened by poverty and social exclusion by at least 20 million to below 25%.

For this, 3 indicators are defined:

• Risk of poverty:

“According to the EU standard, the at-risk-of-poverty threshold is set at 60% of the median equivalised income of the population (in private households) in the respective federal state or region. People whose equivalised income is below this threshold are classified as (relatively) low-income. "

- Federal and state statistical offices

"The at-risk-of-poverty rate is an indicator for measuring relative income poverty and is - according to the EU standard - defined as the proportion of people whose equivalised income is less than 60% of the median equivalised income of the population (in private households)."

- Federal and state statistical offices

• Considerable material deprivation : Percentage of the population who cannot pay for at least four of the following nine expenses:
  1. Mortgage or rental debt or utility bills,
  2. adequate heating of the apartment,
  3. unexpected expenses,
  4. regular meals containing meat or protein,
  5. Vacation trips,
  6. TV,
  7. Washing machine,
  8. automobile
  9. Phone.

• Low work intensity: percentage of people of working age (excluding students) who have worked less than 20% of their total work potential in the previous 12 months.

Risk of poverty in Germany

In Germany, the average of people at risk of poverty in 2011 was 15.1%; this was the case in 2011 with an income of € 848, although there are nationwide differences. In the former federal areas (excluding Berlin), only 14% were at risk of poverty, but 19.5% in the new federal states (including Berlin). There were differences not only between East and West, but also between the various federal states. In Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, only around 11% of the population were at risk of poverty, while in Bremen around 22%. Compared to 2010, the number of people at risk of poverty rose on a national average by 0.6% from 14.4% to 15.1%; in 2005 the average was 14.7%.

There are three regional differences in the at-risk-of-poverty rate in Germany:

• At-risk-of-poverty rates measured by the federal median
• At-risk-of-poverty rates measured by the national median
• At-risk-of-poverty rates measured against the respective regional median

See also: List of the German federal states by at-risk-of-poverty rate .

Risk of poverty in Austria

In Austria, Statistics Austria calculates the 3 indicators on poverty and social exclusion every year. People are considered to be "at risk of poverty or exclusion" for whom at least one of the three indicators "at risk of poverty", "significantly materially deprived" or "low-paid" applies. For 2017 this results in:

indicator	number	percent
at risk of poverty	1,245,000	14.4
materially deprived	323,000	3.7
low employment intensity	545,000	8.3
at risk of poverty or exclusion	1,563,000	18.1

In 2017, 136,000 people in Austria were less at risk of poverty or exclusion than in 2008, which corresponds to a decrease from 20.6% to 18.1%.

Risk of exclusion according to groups of people:

Total population

Max. Compulsory education

Men living alone

Women living alone

Unemployed 6–11 months

One-parent household

not EU citizens

Unemployed from 12 months

At risk of poverty in Europe

The risk of poverty in Europe is recorded, among other things, by the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). In a European comparison, Germany is below the European average, which was 16.4% in 2010. Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria are at the bottom.

criticism

The concept of at-risk-of-poverty regularly attracts criticism, in particular because of the relative, arbitrarily set income level of less than 60% of the median income of the total population of a country. Based on this relative definition, the poverty rate would not change if suddenly all people were to earn double their wages.

Another criticism is that only the income side, but not the expenditure side, is taken into account. People in structurally weak areas (who therefore have both a lower income and lower expenditure) are disproportionately represented in the statistics, but without actually being poor or socially excluded. Even people who have a temporarily low income due to age (such as apprentices and students) are often recorded by the statistics as at risk of poverty without feeling poor themselves.

The economic and social researcher Walter Krämer accuses the social associations collecting the quota of having no interest in the actual development of poverty and calls for a serious analysis of poverty to be linked to emergencies.

See also

• In-work poverty
• Pen's Parade
• Wealth limit
• Relative poverty
• Relative poverty gap

Web links

• Risk of poverty - a relative term (2004; PDF; 336 kB), summarized in Statistics: Poverty and social exclusion in the EU, s. 2
• Agenda 2010 and the risk of poverty . In: ifo Schnelldienst . Volume 62, No. 17, 2009, pp. 23-27.
• For the first time EU-wide comparable data on poverty
• Federal Statistical Office (Destatis): data on social reporting (including data on poverty). Retrieved August 25, 2017.
• Federal Statistical Office (Destatis): Data on the subject of poverty from the survey "Living in Europe". Retrieved August 25, 2017.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Federal Statistical Office (Destatis): Explanation on the risk of poverty threshold
2. ↑ Eurostat, Material Deprivation. Retrieved August 24, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Eurostat, People living in households with low work intensity. Retrieved December 18, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Figures on the risk of poverty ( memento of the original from November 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Statistics
6. ↑ Statistics Austria, table poverty and social inclusion 2004 to 2017. Accessed on December 19, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Statistics Austria, Social Integration Indicators. Retrieved December 18, 2018 . 
8. ↑ Statistics Austria, graphics, 2017. Retrieved on December 18, 2018 . 
9. ↑ Statistics of the European Union on income and living conditions ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ Focus on People at risk of poverty or social exclusion 2013 + 2014
12. ↑ Poverty Report 2017: How poor are Germans? In: ZEIT ONLINE . March 2, 2017 ( zeit.de [accessed December 4, 2018]).
13. ↑ Florian Diekmann, Alexander Demling: Doubts about EU statistics: This is how Germany is calculated poor . In: Spiegel Online . October 23, 2012 ( spiegel.de [accessed December 4, 2018]).
14. ↑ Dietrich Creutzburg: Poverty in Germany: What the number "3.1 million" says about poverty wages . In: FAZ.NET . February 4, 2015, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed December 4, 2018]).
15. ↑ n-tv Nachrichten: When is someone in Germany poor? In: n-tv.de . March 2, 2017 ( n-tv.de [accessed December 4, 2018]).