Risk of poverty or social exclusion (i01)

In 2022, the proportion of the Belgian population at risk of poverty or social exclusion equaled to 18.7%. To achieve the sustainable development goal by 2030, this figure must be reduced to 10.8%. This objective will not be reached by continuing the trend between 2015 and 2022 (assessment of November 2023; break in series: BE 2019 - data up to 2018 not comparable with data from 2019 onwards. This may have an impact on the evaluation result, which should therefore be treated with caution). The proportion of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion is therefore developing unfavourably.

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Risk of poverty or social exclusion - Belgium - trend assessment

percentage of population

 20002015201920202021202220252030
observations--21.620.0--18.818.7----
trend and extrapolation (November 2023)--22.320.119.619.018.517.416.2
objective 203010.810.810.810.810.810.810.810.8

break in series: 2019 - data up to 2018 not comparable with data from 2019 onwards. This may have an impact on the evaluation result, which should therefore be treated with caution.

Statbel; Eurostat (2023), European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), ilc_peps01, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 31/03/2023) & calculations FPB.

Risk of poverty or social exclusion - Belgium and international comparison

percentage of population

 2004200520102013201520182019202020222022//20152018//20042018//20132020//2010
Belgium--------21.620.520.020.318.7-2.0------
EU27--------24.021.721.121.621.6-1.5------
Belgium (EU2020)21.622.620.820.821.120.019.518.918.3-2.0-0.5-0.8-1.0
EU27 (EU2020)----23.924.623.821.620.921.5-------2.6-1.1
//: Average Growth Rates

break in series: EU 2020, BE 2019

Statbel; Eurostat (2023), European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), ilc_peps01n and ilc_peps01, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 02/10/2023); Statbel (2023), Risque de pauvreté ou d'exclusion sociale - Chiffres, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/risque-de-pauvrete-ou-dexclusion-sociale (consulté le 02/10/2023); Statbel (2022), direct communication 20/09/2022 and Statbel (2023), direct communication 17/02/2023.

Risk of poverty or social exclusion by region - Belgium

percentage of population

 20192020202120222022//2019
Brussels-Capital Region38.936.435.338.8-0.1
Flemish Region13.914.212.411.2-6.9
Walloon Region24.826.024.925.81.3
//: Average Growth Rates

The margin of uncertainty for this indicator is indicated in the text for the latest year. Break in series: 2019

Statbel; Eurostat (2023), European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), ilc_peps11n, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 02/10/2023); Statbel (2023), Direct communication 17/02/2023.

Risk of poverty or social exclusion by sex - Belgium

percentage of population

 2015201820192020202120222022//20192018//2015
females22.821.720.620.919.419.3-2.1-1.6
males20.519.419.419.718.218.1-2.3-1.8
//: Average Growth Rates

break in series: 2019

Statbel; Eurostat (2023), European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), ilc_peps01n, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 02/10/2023)

Risk of poverty or social exclusion by age - Belgium

percentage of population

 2015201820192020202120222022//20192018//2015
<1824.123.523.022.020.519.6-5.2-0.8
18-2424.623.921.521.220.121.50.0-1.0
25-4919.618.017.617.116.415.5-4.1-2.8
50-6424.822.622.422.522.020.7-2.6-3.0
>6417.417.917.521.317.020.04.60.9
//: Average Growth Rates

break in series: 2019

Statbel; Eurostat (2023), European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), ilc_peps01n, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 02/10/2023)

Risk of poverty or social exclusion by education - Belgium

percentage of population aged 18 and over

 2015201820192020202120222022//20192018//2015
at most lower secondary36.735.534.337.934.538.53.9-1.1
upper secondary20.319.319.320.619.219.1-0.3-1.7
tertiary10.48.48.78.38.28.70.0-6.9
//: Average Growth Rates

break in series: 2019

Statbel; Eurostat (2023), European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), ilc_peps04n, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 02/10/2023)

Risk of poverty or social exclusion by household type - Belgium

percentage of population

 2015201820192020202120222022//20192018//2015
single person32.731.330.832.731.030.5-0.3-1.4
single-parent family49.751.545.846.339.044.0-1.31.2
2 adults16.116.215.716.214.315.0-1.50.2
2 adults, 1 child13.314.217.217.414.811.5-12.62.2
2 adults, 2 children12.411.38.69.18.08.60.0-3.0
2 adults, 3+ children24.625.726.323.822.722.5-5.11.5
//: Average Growth Rates

break in series: 2019

Statbel; Eurostat (2023), European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), ilc_peps03n, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 02/10/2023)

Risk of poverty or social exclusion by activity status - Belgium

percentage of population aged 18 and over

 2015201820192020202120222022//20192018//2015
employed6.66.56.56.45.55.2-7.2-0.5
unemployed70.367.272.171.964.267.9-2.0-1.5
retired14.815.815.618.915.417.74.32.2
other49.549.046.848.646.346.3-0.4-0.3
//: Average Growth Rates

break in series: 2019

Statbel; Eurostat (2023), European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), ilc_peps02n, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 02/10/2023)

Risk of poverty or social exclusion by income - Belgium

percentage of population

 2015201820192020202120222022//20192018//2015
quintile 182.986.282.081.573.775.4-2.81.3
quintile 217.712.310.913.713.712.85.5-11.4
quintile 35.22.84.83.64.13.7-8.3-18.6
quintile 41.60.71.72.01.61.0-16.2-24.1
quintile 50.70.50.60.60.90.60.0-10.6
//: Average Growth Rates

break in series: 2019

Statbel; Eurostat (2023), European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), ilc_peps03n, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat (consulted on 02/10/2023);

Definition: the share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion is calculated as the ratio of the people belonging to at least one of three sub-populations and the total population. These sub-populations are people at risk of poverty, people living in a household with a very low work intensity and severally materially and socially deprived people.

This indicator was already used in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy. However, two of the three sub-indicators had a different definition then: severe material deprivation is now replaced by severe material and social deprivation (with an updated list of items) and the persons considered to calculate the indicator on very low work intensity changed slightly.

The general evolution of both indicators for Belgium and the UE27 is commented upon below. The indicator agreed upon in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy, with data available from 2004, is then referred to as '(EU 2020)'. For the indicator agreed after the Europe 2020 strategy in the context of the action plan for the European pillar for social rights, (European Commission, 2021) there is no specific label. Data in this case are available from 2015 at the earliest and the data for Belgium are also used to show the evolution by region and for different population categories..

Data on the share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion used here are based on the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey (EU-SILC) of the European Union. The income data used to calculate the sub-population of persons at risk of poverty always refer to the year preceding the survey year. This is also the case for the employment data used to calculate the sub-population of persons living in households with very low work intensity. The data used to calculate the persons living in a situation of severe material deprivation and of severe material and social deprivation refer to the time of the survey.

Statistics Belgium organises this EU-harmonised survey in Belgium and makes the results available, in particular to Eurostat. 2004 is the first year for which European harmonised data have been collected to calculate the indicator. The data used here come from Eurostat, which publishes detailed and comparable results between EU Member States. Since these data are based on surveys, a margin of uncertainty should be taken into account. This margin of uncertainty increases as the indicator is calculated on smaller sub-populations. The confidence intervals for these data are available on request from Statistics Belgium.

From 2019 onwards, the methodology of the survey has been thoroughly revised for better accuracy. Therefore, the data collected until 2018 are not comparable with those collected from 2019 onwards. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted data collection. This makes it difficult to compare the results of SILC 2020 with those of previous years (Statbel, 2021). Therefore, they are not used to calculate and evaluate the long-term trend. It should also be noted that due to the widespread use of temporary unemployment during the Covid-19 pandemic, the category 'unemployed' in SILC 2021 includes not only the long-term unemployed, but also persons who have been temporarily unemployed for more than 6 months and who are generally living in less precarious conditions (Statbel, 2022).

Goal: the share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion must be halved, i.e. decrease from 21.6% in 2015 to 10.8% in 2030.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 1.2: “By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions”. In the Belgian context, it means that, by 2030, the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion must be halved.

The European Social Summit in Porto on 7 May 2021 agreed new social objectives for 2030 between the European Council, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the social partners in the context of the action plan for the European pillar for social rights, (European Commission, 2021). These objectives were endorsed by the European Council (European Council, 2021a, 2021b). A reduction by 2030 in the number of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU of at least 15 million, including 5 million children, was proposed.

In that framework, Belgium committed to reducing the number of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion based on SILC 2019 data with 279,000 persons, to 1.982 million persons by 2030. Specifically for children (persons under 18) and for the same period, the reduction target is 93,000 persons (Federal Public Service Social Security, 2023). Note that Belgium also adopted a target for persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion who are working: it should not exceed 4.9% by 2030 (European Commission, 2022; Federal Public Service Social Security, 2023).

International comparison: the share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion decreased in the EU27 from 24% in 2015 to 21.6% in 2022. In that period, the average for Belgium is 1.5 percentage points lower than that of the EU27. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with average performance and outperforms the European average in 2022. In that year, the Czechia ranked first with 11.8% and Romania last with 34.4%.

The share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion (EU 2020) decreased in the EU27 from 23.9% in 2010 to 21.5% in 2020. The average for Belgium over the period 2010-2020 is 2.7 percentage points lower than in the EU27. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with average performance and outperforms the European average in 2020. In that year, the Czech Republic ranked first with 11.9% and Bulgaria last with 32.1%.

UN indicator: the selected indicator corresponds to indicator 1.2.2 - Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.

Sources

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