Eurostat: over one third of Romanians exposed to poverty, social exclusion risk

Over one third of Romanians are exposed to poverty and social exclusion risk, data released by Eurostat shows.

Last year, over one third of the population was exposed to poverty risk and social exclusion in three EU member states : Bulgaria (40.4 percent), Romania (38.8) and Greece (35.6 percent), data released on Monday by the Eurostat shows.

The EU states with the lowest risk of poverty and social exclusion are the Czech Republic (13.3 percent), Finland (16.6 percent), Denmark (16.7 percent) and the Netherlands (16.8 percent).

In the 28 countries of the EU, 23.4 percent of the population, namely 117.5 million is exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion, comparable to the level before the crisis in 2008.

One of the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy is to remove from this category at least 20 million people by 2020.

Between 208-2016, the poverty and social exclusion risk increased in 10 EU members. The biggest increase was recorded in Greece (from 28.1 percent in 2008 to 35.6 percent in 2016, or 7.5 percent), Cyprus (4.4 percent), Spain (4.1 percent), and Sweden (3.4 percent).

Conversely, in other countries the risk of poverty and social exclusion decreased. For instance, in Poland it went down from30.5 percent in 2008 to 21.9 percent in 2016, namely 8.6 percent, in Latvia it decreased from 34.2 percent in 2008 to 28.5 percent in 2016, representing 5.7 percent and Romania, from 44.2 percent in 2008 to 38.8 percent in 2016, or 5.4 percent.

In 2008, 9.11 million Romanian citizens were exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion, and last year the number stood at 7.69 million. The Eurostat data concerning Romania is provisional.