Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact : ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 10 on reducing inequality within and among countries: which is embedded in the European Commission's Priorities under the European Green Deal, Economy that works for people, European way of life and European Democracy.

SDG 10 among other things, calls for nations to adapt polices and legislation to increase the income of the bottom 40 % of the population and to reduce inequalities based on income, sex, age, disability, race, class, ethnicity, religion and opportunity. The indicator sheds light on the depth of poverty within the EU Member States by measuring the distance of the income of those at risk of poverty from the poverty threshold. As such, it is an important tool to quantify inequality within a society. 

SDG 1 calls for an eradication of extreme poverty and for a reduction of relative poverty by 2030. 

The European Pillar of Social Rights sets out 20 key principles to support fair and well-functioning labour markets and welfare systems. These principles address topics related to inequality by tackling both inequality of outcomes and inequality of opportunities: from wage-setting to social-protection systems, gender equality, enabling social services, childcare and support to children, old-age income, healthcare and access to housing.

The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan turns the Principles of European Pillar of Social Rights into concrete actions to benefit citizens. It proposes headline targets regarding employment rate, adult participation in learning and risk of poverty and social exclusion for the EU to reach by 2030.

The European Semester is a key delivery tool of the Pillar and coordinates the economic and fiscal policies of EU Member States. As part of its Green Deal, the European Commission has announced that the European Semester will be refocused to integrate the SDGs and to put sustainability and the well-being of citizens at the centre of economic policy.

The indicator is calculated as the distance between the median equivalised total net income of persons below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold and the at-risk-of-poverty threshold itself, expressed as a percentage of the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. This threshold is set at 60 % of the national median equivalised disposable income of all people in a country and not for the EU as a whole.

The EU aggregate is a population weighted average of individual national figures. In line with decisions of the European Council, the risk-of-poverty rate is measured relative to the situation in each country rather than applying a common threshold to all countries.

% distance to poverty threshold

Calendar year

From 2021 Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 foresees the requirements relating to geographical coverage, detailed sample characteristics, including subsampling, in accordance with Annex III, common data gathering periods, common standards for editing and imputation, weighting, estimation and variance estimation.

Before 2021 onwards EU-SILC is based on a common framework defined by harmonised lists of primary and secondary variables, common concepts, a recommended design, common requirements (such as imputation procedures, weighting, sampling errors calculation) and classifications aiming at maximising comparability of the information produced. Details can be found in the metadata of the source datasets (see link to related metadata).

EU-SILC

Data source: Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC)

Data provider: Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, based on data reported by the countries.

Every year

Indicator is updated annually in November. Complete and updated ESS data release information can be accessed via Eurostat release calendar.

T+1 year

New data points are disseminated within one year after the reference year.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Türkiye.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

> 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2010.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

see table  sdg_10_30

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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