A Belgian in five lives in poverty

Axelle Lot

© Metro

More than 20% of Belgians live in poverty. This is shown by figures from Eurostat on the occasion of the international day for the eradication of poverty, which is taking place today. It is striking that 13.5% of Belgians between 0 and 59 years of age live in a family where work is hardly or not at all. This means that our country scores worse than the European average of 9.3%.

In 2017, 22.5% of the population of the European Union was threatened by poverty or social exclusion. While the figure rose to 25% between 2008 and 2012, it is decreasing year after year. In our country too, the number of people living in poverty fell from 20.8% in 2008 to 20.3% last year.

We score better than the European average, but our neighbors do better. In the Netherlands this is a percentage of 17%, compared with 17.1% in France, 19% in Germany and 21.5% in Luxembourg. At the very bottom of the European list, Bulgaria (38.9%), Romania (35.7%) and Greece (34.8%) dangle. The three front-runners in the EU are the Czech Republic (12.2%), Finland (15.7%) and Slovakia (16.3%).

Worse than average 

A person living in poverty is at least one of the following conditions: risk of poverty after social transfers (monetary poverty), living with a serious shortage of resources and living in a family where little or no work is done.

In the latter category, our country scores remarkably worse at 13.5% than the European average of 9.3%. Only Ireland (18.2%) and Greece (15.6%) are ahead of us. This is also an increase compared to 2008, when it was 11.7%.

The message A Belgian on five lives in poverty first appeared on Metro.

SOURCE : https://www.msn.com/nl-be/nieuws/nationaal/een-belg-op-vijf-leeft-in-armoede/ar-BBOtYCL?li=BBqj2K6