Poverty – the facts 2008

Information on the income and living conditions of different types of households, poverty and social exclusion is collected through an annual survey (the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC)) conducted by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The most up to date data refers to 2008.

At risk of poverty

• In 2008, 14.4% of the populations were at risk of poverty, a decrease of 2.1 percentage points from 2007.
• Children remained the most at risk age group in 2008 with an at risk of poverty rate of 18%, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points from 2007.
• By Principal Economic Status the greatest fall in the at risk of poverty rate was recorded for persons who were unemployed (falling from 38.7% in 2007 to 23.0% in 2008). By comparison the at risk of poverty rate for people at work was unchanged at 6.7%.
• Lone parent households continued to be the household type with the highest at risk of poverty rate with a rate of 36.4% being recorded for individuals in these households.

Deprivation

• Three quarters (75.1%) of individuals reported that they had experienced none of eleven forms of enforced deprivation in 2008. This level has remained reasonably stable since 2006.
• Of the remaining one quarter of individuals who reported enforced deprivation, 11.1% experienced one deprivation item, almost 5% experienced two items and almost 9% experienced three or more items.
• Lone parent households reported the highest deprivation levels of any household type with nearly one quarter (24.2%) of individuals in these households experiencing three or more of the eleven deprivation items in 2008.
• The most commonly reported of the eleven deprivation indicators continued to be the inability to afford to replace worn out furniture, at 13.3%.

Consistent poverty

•  The percentage of people in consistent poverty in 2008 was 4.2%, a fall of 0.9 percentage points from 2007 when the rate was 5.1%.
• The consistent poverty rate for unemployed persons was 9.7% in 2008 down from 17.5% in 2007, a decrease of almost half. This compares with a consistent poverty rate of 1.1% where the individual was at work or retired.
• Children (aged 0-17) remained the most exposed age group with a consistent poverty rate of 6.3%. This compares with a consistent poverty rate of 1.7% among persons aged 65-74 and just 1.0% among persons aged 75 or over.
• Nearly one in five people in lone parent households (17.8%) were in consistent poverty in 2008, the highest rate recorded among household types.

EU comparison and indicators

• In 2007, the average at risk of poverty rate for the EU was 16%, with Latvia reporting the highest rate at 21% and Ireland reporting a rate above the EU average at 18%.
• The Netherlands and the Czech Republic recorded the lowest at risk of poverty rates in the EU in 2007 at 10%.