Poverty Risks For Older People In EU Countries An Update

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from Medical News Today

This Policy Brief provides the latest evidence on how EU countries differ in terms of poverty risks for older people (aged 65 years and over).

Results using the latest EU-SILC data for 2008 show that, on average, older people face a higher poverty risk rate than the total population: the rate for older people was 19% as opposed to rate for the total population of 17%.

The highest poverty risk rates were observed in Latvia (51%), Cyprus (49%), Estonia (39%) and Bulgaria (34%).

The lowest in Hungary (4%), Luxembourg (5%) and the Czech Republic (7%).

Three country groupings can be distinguished from these results: ten countries with lower-than-average poverty risk rates for older people (16% or less), nine countries with close-to-average poverty risk rates (18-23%) and another eight countries with higher-than-average poverty risk rates (>25%). No single explanation can be meaningfully employed to explain this differentiation across the three groupings of countries. That said, countries with low poverty risk rates for older people generally have a good social safety net in the form of a basic pension (e.g. the Netherlands) and/or they offer strong redistribution in the earnings-related contributory pension schemes in the form of minimum guaranteed pensions (e.g. Austria).

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