Around 33 million people in the European Union were severely materially deprived in 2017, which corresponds to 6.7% of the population, a preliminary estimate by Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, showed on Tuesday.
The situation is the worst in Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary and Romania, while the smallest share of the population living among such conditions was the lowest in Sweden, Luxembourg, Finland and the Netherlands.
The share of severely materially deprived people dropped 0.8 percentage points year on year to 6.7% in the EU in 2017, i.e. around 33 million people were in this situation, according to early estimates for last year published by the Eurostat today.
This means that these people cannot afford at least four of the following items, which are considered by most people to be desirable or necessary to lead an adequate life:
pay their bills on time;
keep their home adequately warm;
face unexpected expenses;
eat meat (or fish or the vegetarian equivalent) regularly;
take a one week holiday away from home;
a TV;
a washing machine;
a car;
a telephone.
In most of the countries for which 2017 data are available, the severe material deprivation rate decreased compared with 2016. The exceptions are Denmark, where it increased by 0.5 percentage points, from 2.6% in 2016 to 3.1% in 2017, and the Netherlands where it remained stable at 2.6%.
The largest decreases are registered in Romania (from 23.8% in 2016 to 19.4% in 2017, or -4.4pp), followed by Italy (from 12.1% to 9.2%, or -2.9pp), Croatia (from 12.5% to 10.3%, or -2.2pp), Bulgaria (from 31.9% to 30.0%, or -1.9pp) and Cyprus (from 13.6% to 11.7%, or -1.9pp). The share dropped 1.7 percentage points to 14.5% in Hungary.
Across EU Member States, Bulgaria (30.0%), Greece (21.1%), Romania (19.4%) and Hungary (14.5%) register the highest shares of severe material deprivation. In contrast, the severe material deprivation rates were below 3% in Sweden (0.8% in 2016), Luxembourg (1.6% in 2016), Finland (2.0%) and the Netherlands (2.6%).
