The share of Europeans who consider themselves poor fell to 17.4% in 2024, down from 19.1% the year before. This is stated in the latest Eurostat report on income and living conditions (EU-SILC).
Cyprus also shows steady improvement, with the subjective poverty rate falling to 20.8% from 24.1% in 2023 and 29.6% in 2022.
Children and adolescents under 18 remain the most vulnerable - 20.6% consider their financial situation to be unfavorable. Among people of working age (18–64) this figure is 17.3%, and among older people (65+) it is only 14.9%.
In all age groups there has been an improvement over the year, with the most noticeable progress among the adult population: minus 1.8 percentage points. In young and old people the decrease was 1.6 percentage points each.
The highest level of subjective poverty was recorded in Greece - 66.8% of the population consider themselves financially disadvantaged. This is followed by Bulgaria (37.4%) and Slovakia (28.7%).
At the opposite pole are the Netherlands and Germany, where only 7.3% of residents perceive themselves to be poor. Luxembourg is almost at the same level - 8.5%.
Subjective poverty does not reflect actual income, but rather a person's sense of financial stability—a family's ability to cope with everyday expenses, debt obligations, and unexpected expenses. The EU-SILC survey is carried out in all EU countries, as well as in most EFTA states and accession candidate countries.
Source: in-cyprus.philenews.com
