Eurostat published the latest figures on the risk of poverty and social exclusion in the EU which show, among other findings, that in 2010 27% of children aged below 18 were affected by at least one of the three forms of poverty or social exclusion. In addition, the figures also show that 16% of the population in the EU were at risk of income poverty in 2010.

The 23.4% of the population or 115 million in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2010. According to a report released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, figures show that looking at each of the three elements defining at risk of poverty or social exclusion -at-risk-of-poverty, severely materially deprived or living in households with very low work intensity-, 16% of the population in the EU in 2010 were at-risk-of-poverty after social transfers, meaning that their disposable income was below their national at-risk-of-poverty threshold. Recently, the Commission published a report which showed that poverty is rising in the EU.

The highest at-risk-of-poverty rates were observed in Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria and Spain (all 21%), and the lowest in the Czech Republic (9%), the Netherlands (10%), Slovakia, Austria and Hungary (all 12%), while the highest shares of persons being at risk of poverty or social exclusion were recorded in Bulgaria (42%), Romania (41%), Latvia (38%), Lithuania (33%) and Hungary (30%), and the lowest in the Czech Republic (14%), Sweden and the Netherlands (both 15%), Austria, Finland and Luxembourg (all 17%).

The figures published by Eurostat also show that in the EU in 2010, 27% of children aged below 18 were affected by at least one of the three forms of poverty or social exclusion, compared with 23% of the working age population (aged 18-64) and 20% of the elderly (aged 65 and over). Children were most affected in 20 Member States, while the elderly were the most touched in Bulgaria, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden. In Denmark, it was the working age population which was the most affected.