2014-04-22 - Socio Economic Review 2014 - Full text and cover - FINAL

in the years prior to 2008. Ireland’s poverty levels remained below average EU levels
since then to 2011, although over that time poverty rates increased. In 2012, across
the EU, the highest poverty levels were found in the recent accession countries of
Bulgaria and Romania and the two countries caught up in the EU-wide economic
crash - Spain and Greece. The lowest levels were in Denmark, the Netherlands and
the Czech Republic.
Table 3.12: The risk of poverty in the European Union in 2012
Country poverty Risk Country poverty Risk
Greece 23.1 Luxembourg 15.1
Romania 22.6 Belgium 14.8
Spain 22.2 Cyprus 14.7
Bulgaria 21.2 Austria 14.4
Croatia 20.5 Sweden 14.1
Italy 19.4 France 14.1
Latvia 19.2 Hungary 14.0
Lithuania 18.6 Slovenia 13.5
Portugal 17.9 Slovakia 13.2
Estonia 17.5 Finland 13.2
Poland 17.1 Denmark 13.1
UK 16.2 Netherlands 10.1
Germany 16.1 Czech Rep 9.6
IRElAND 15.2 Eu-27 average 16.9
Malta 15.1 Eu-28 average 16.9
Source: Eurostat online database
Note: Table uses the most up-to-date comparable data available for countries and
corresponds to the year 2012 for all countries except Ireland where the value is for 2011.
The average risk of poverty in the EU-28 for 2012 was 16.9 per cent. Chart 3.1 further
develops the findings of table 3.12 and shows the difference between national
poverty risk levels and the EU-28 average.
While there have been some reductions in poverty in recent years across the EU, the
data does suggest that poverty remains a large and ongoing EU-wide problem. In
2012 the average EU-28 level implied that 84.9 million people are in poverty across
the EU.
3. Income Distribution 65