European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate: Population was 15.50% in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate: Population - last updated from the EUROSTAT on October of 2025. Historically, European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate: Population reached a record high of 16.70% in December of 2016 and a record low of 15.30% in December of 2010.

The number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the European Union increased by *** thousand persons since the previous year. In total, the number of people at risk of poverty amounted to **** million persons in 2023. This trend was preceded by a declining number of people at risk of poverty.People at risk of poverty or social exclusion, income distribution and monetary poverty, living conditions and material deprivation is the main indicator to monitor the EU 2030 target on poverty and social exclusion and was the headline indicator to monitor the EU 2020 Strategy poverty target.Find more key insights for the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in countries like Czechia, France, and Poland.

The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) collects timely and comparable multidimensional microdata on income, poverty, social exclusion and living conditions.

The EU-SILC collection is a key instrument for providing information required by the European Semester (_[1]) and the European Pillar of Social Rights, and the main source of data for microsimulation purposes and flash estimates of income distribution and poverty rates.

AROPE remains crucial to monitor European social policies, especially to monitor the EU 2030 target on poverty and social exclusion. For more information, please consult EU social indicators.

The EU-SILC instrument provides two types of data:

• Cross-sectional data pertaining to a given time or a certain time period with variables on income, poverty, social exclusion and other living conditions.
• Longitudinal data pertaining to individual-level changes over time, observed periodically over four‐or more year rotation scheme (Annex III (2) of 2019/1700).

EU-SILC collects:

• annual variables,
• three-yearly modules,
• six-yearly modules,
• ad-hoc new policy needs modules,
• optional variables.

The variables collected are grouped by topic and detailed topic and transmitted to Eurostat in four main files (D-File, H-File, R-File and P-file).

The domain ‘Income and Living Conditions’ covers the following topics: persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion, income inequality, income distribution and monetary poverty, living conditions, material deprivation, and EU-SILC ad-hoc modules, which are structured into collections of indicators on specific topics.

In 2023, in addition to annual data, in EU-SILC were collected: the three yearly module on labour market and housing, the six yearly module on intergenerational transmission of advantages and disadvantages, housing difficulties, and the ad hoc subject on households energy efficiency.

Starting from 2021 onwards, the EU quality reports use the structure of the Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS).

_{([1]) The European Semester is the European Union’s framework for the coordination and surveillance of economic and social policies.}

Historical dataset showing European Union poverty rate by year from N/A to N/A.

European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate: From 50 to 64 years was 14.50% in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate: From 50 to 64 years - last updated from the EUROSTAT on October of 2025. Historically, European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate: From 50 to 64 years reached a record high of 16.20% in December of 2015 and a record low of 13.30% in December of 2010.

Out of all OECD countries, Cost Rica had the highest poverty rate as of 2022, at over 20 percent. The country with the second highest poverty rate was the United States, with 18 percent. On the other end of the scale, Czechia had the lowest poverty rate at 6.4 percent, followed by Denmark.

The significance of the OECD

The OECD, or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, was founded in 1948 and is made up of 38 member countries. It seeks to improve the economic and social well-being of countries and their populations. The OECD looks at issues that impact people’s everyday lives and proposes policies that can help to improve the quality of life.

Poverty in the United States

In 2022, there were nearly 38 million people living below the poverty line in the U.S.. About one fourth of the Native American population lived in poverty in 2022, the most out of any ethnicity. In addition, the rate was higher among young women than young men. It is clear that poverty in the United States is a complex, multi-faceted issue that affects millions of people and is even more complex to solve.

The relative median at-risk-of-poverty gap is calculated as the difference between the median equivalised total net income of persons below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold and the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, expressed as a percentage of the at-risk-of-poverty threshold (cut-off point: 60% of median equivalised income). The EU aggregate is a population weighted average of individual national figures. In line with decisions of the European Council, the risk-of-poverty rate is measured relative to the situation in each country rather than applying a common threshold to all countries.

The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) collects timely and comparable multidimensional microdata on income, poverty, social exclusion and living conditions.

The EU-SILC collection is a key instrument for providing information required by the European Semester (_[1]) and the European Pillar of Social Rights, and the main source of data for microsimulation purposes and flash estimates of income distribution and poverty rates.

AROPE remains crucial to monitor European social policies, especially to monitor the EU 2030 target on poverty and social exclusion. For more information, please consult EU social indicators.

The EU-SILC instrument provides two types of data:

• Cross-sectional data pertaining to a given time or a certain time period with variables on income, poverty, social exclusion and other living conditions.
• Longitudinal data pertaining to individual-level changes over time, observed periodically over four‐or more year rotation scheme (Annex III (2) of 2019/1700).

EU-SILC collects:

• annual variables,
• three-yearly modules,
• six-yearly modules,
• ad-hoc new policy needs modules,
• optional variables.

The variables collected are grouped by topic and detailed topic and transmitted to Eurostat in four main files (D-File, H-File, R-File and P-file).

The domain ‘Income and Living Conditions’ covers the following topics: persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion, income inequality, income distribution and monetary poverty, living conditions, material deprivation, and EU-SILC ad-hoc modules, which are structured into collections of indicators on specific topics.

In 2023, in addition to annual data, in EU-SILC were collected: the three yearly module on labour market and housing, the six yearly module on intergenerational transmission of advantages and disadvantages, housing difficulties, and the ad hoc subject on households energy efficiency.

Starting from 2021 onwards, the EU quality reports use the structure of the Single Integrated Metadata Structure (SIMS).

_{([1]) The European Semester is the European Union’s framework for the coordination and surveillance of economic and social policies.}

The share of persons with an equivalised disposable income below the risk-of-poverty threshold, which is set at 60 % of the national median equivalised disposable income (after social transfers).

European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate of elderly people: Owner was 15.00% in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate of elderly people: Owner - last updated from the EUROSTAT on October of 2025. Historically, European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate of elderly people: Owner reached a record high of 15.80% in December of 2022 and a record low of 12.10% in December of 2014.

The share of persons with an equivalised disposable income, before social transfers, below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. Retirement and survivor's pensions are counted as income before transfers and not as social transfers.

The average for 2020 based on 25 countries was 16.19 percent. The highest value was in Latvia: 23.4 percent and the lowest value was in the Czechia: 8.6 percent. The indicator is available from 2000 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

At-risk-of-poverty rate by poverty threshold and tenure status - EU-SILC survey

In-work at-risk-of-poverty rate by work intensity of the household (population aged 18 to 59 years) - EU-SILC survey

Slovakia was the European Union (EU) country with the largest expected increase in poverty due to the Russia-Ukraine war that began in February 2022. According to the estimates, the share of the Slovak population at risk of poverty was estimated to increase by 4.3 percent as a consequence of economic issues caused by the invasion, such as inflation. Estonia was projected the second-highest poverty increase, at 3.7 percent of residents.

The share of persons with an equivalised disposable income below the risk-of-poverty threshold, which is set at 60 % of the national median equivalised disposable income (after social transfers).

The indicator shows the percentage of the population whose equivalised disposable income was below the ‘at-.risk-of-poverty threshold’ for the current year and at least 2 out of the preceding 3 years.

At-risk-of-poverty rate before social transfers (pensions excluded from social transfers) by poverty threshold, age and sex - EU-SILC survey

European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate of elderly people was 16.60% in December of 2024, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate of elderly people - last updated from the EUROSTAT on October of 2025. Historically, European Union - At Risk of Poverty rate of elderly people reached a record high of 17.30% in December of 2022 and a record low of 13.20% in December of 2014.

This statistic shows the United Kingdom (UK) public opinion on the 2020 European Union (EU) objective that the number of Europeans living below the poverty line should be reduced by a quarter by 2020, as of May 2017. This was considered too modest by 17 percent of respondents.