Glossary:Persons living in households with low work intensity
The indicator persons living in households with very low work intensity is defined as the number of persons living in a household where the members of working age worked a working time equal or less than 20% of their total work-time potential during the previous year.
The work intensity of a household is the ratio of the total number of months that all working-age household members have worked during the income reference year and the total number of months the same household members theoretically could have worked in the same period.
The household total potential is “the total number of months that could, in theory, have been worked by the adults in the same household”. Worked months are measured in terms of full-time equivalent: “For persons who declared having worked part-time, an estimate of the number of months in terms of full time-equivalent is computed on the basis of the number of usually worked hours at the time of the interview”.
The indicator, persons living in households with very low work intensity is defined as “people from 0-64 years living in households where the adults (those aged 18-64, but excluding students aged 18-24 and people who are retired according to their self-defined current economic status or who receive any pension (except survivors pension), as well as people in the age bracket 60-64 who are inactive and living in a household where the main income is pensions - except survivors pension - worked less than 20% of their total combined work-time potential during the previous 12 months”. Households composed only of children, of students aged less than 25 and/or people aged 65 or more are excluded from the indicator calculation.
The following table shows the definitions of the indicator persons living in households with very low work intensity according to the Europe 2030 targets and the Europe 2020 strategy.
| Indicator | Europe 2030 | Europe 2020 |
| Low work intensity indicator | People from 0-64 years living in households where the adults (those aged 18-64, but excluding students aged 18-24 and people who are retired according to their self-defined current economic status or who receive any pension (except survivors pension), as well as people in the age bracket 60-64 who are inactive and living in a household where the main income is pensions -except survivors pension- worked a working time equal or less than 20% of their total combined work-time potential during the previous year | People from 0-59 years living in households where the adults (those aged 18-59, but excluding students aged 18-24) worked a working time equal or less than 20 % of their total combined work-time potential during the previous year |
Related concepts
- At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE)
- At-risk-of-poverty rate
- Severe material and social deprivation rate
- Material deprivation (Europe 2020 strategy)