23% of EU citizens were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2010

In 2010 as in 2009, around 23% of the European population were considered to be at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE), according to the definition adopted for the Europe 2020 strategy. With a rate of 26.9% in EU-27, children were at greater risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2010 than the rest of the population in 21 of the 25 Member States for which data are available. The only exceptions were Denmark, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden.

Concerning the single components of the AROPE indicator, in 2010, as in 2009 around 16% of the European population were at risk of poverty, meaning below the poverty threshold. 8% of Europeans were severely materially deprived (stable compared with 2009) and 36% stated they would be unable to cope with unexpected expenses (an increase of 1 percentage point (pp) compared with 2009). Around 10% of people aged 0-59 could be considered as living in a household with very low work intensity in 2010 (increase of 0.9 pp compared with 2009).