One-fifth of the EU population is at risk of poverty, while 12.4% of EU residents have had to give up certain things normal for life in the 21st century – the internet, cars, buying new shoes and clothes or going to a restaurant with friends at least once per month, Eurostat data for 2019 show.
There are 13 things on the list, and those citizens who cannot afford at least five from that list are in the category of those who are prone to poverty. In addition to the above, there is also the impossibility to provide normal heating during the winter, a meal with meat or fish every other day, sudden expenses, replacement of furniture or going on a seven-day vacation.
Looking at the EU, the highest percentage of the socially vulnerable in this way was in two regions in the south of Romania, more than 50 percent, on the other hand, the lowest is in the north of Sweden where only every 50 inhabitants are in the category of those who have to lose a few things from this list.
Serbia is not worse than Romania, nor a good part of Bulgaria, even Greece. In some regions in these three countries, according to Eurostat data, every second or third inhabitant was in a situation where he could not afford a life worthy of a man, because the percentage of that population was 34.5 percent or higher.
In Serbia, the percentage was between 21.5 and 34.5, the same as in Montenegro, northern Romania, parts of Hungary, northern Greece and southern Italy.
The citizens of Iceland, all three Scandinavian countries Norway, Finland and Sweden, as well as certain regions in the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Germany, where the percentage is less than 5.5 percent, had the least waivers of basic things necessary for a normal life.
The risk of poverty remains high across Europe
However, the risk of poverty is still high in the whole of Europe, and the citizens of Serbia are among the last – in the category with countries where every third, even more often, resident is at risk of poverty.
Namely, only Vojvodina than the region in our country has a lower percentage of population at risk of poverty (between 24.5 and 36 percent), while the central and southern part of the country (more than 36 percent) is at the same level as good parts of Bulgaria and Romania, Turkey, Northern Macedonia, but also several regions of Italy and Spain.
According to Eurostat data, in 2012 there were 108.7 million people at risk of poverty in the EU, seven years later the number dropped to 91.4 million, which is a fifth of the Union’s population, Kamatica reports.
