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More than Half a Million Slovaks Seen at Poverty Risk
Friday 04 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 4 (TASR) - The latest European Union poll Eurobarometer on poverty for 2009 reveals that last year there were some 595,000 people or 11 percent of the population at risk of poverty in a member country of 5.4 million named Slovakia.
As well, no less than 79 percent of respondents told pollsters they perceive poverty as highly widespread.
The EU uses 21 indicators to determine whether people are poor, with the most important criterion being determination of the income deemed as poverty threshold. Other indicators are the long-term jobless rate and unequal income, to name a few.
According to the EU-agreed definition, people are considered at risk of poverty when they live on an income below 60 percent of the median household income of their own country.
Based on this indicator every citizen in Slovakia is at risk whose income is lower than €268.64 a month.
Aware of poverty risks originating from the persistent financial and that the economic crisis is reflected in citizens' social status, the Union has declared 2010 as the year of poverty and social exclusion and distributed millions of euros among its member countries to use them in fighting it.
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