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 1 on ending poverty in all its forms everywhere and SDG 10 on reducing inequality within and among countries which are embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under the 'European Green Deal', 'An economy that works for people', 'Promoting the European way of life' and 'A new push for European democracy'.

SDG 1 calls for an eradication of extreme poverty and for a reduction of relative poverty by 2030. It envisions shared prosperity, a basic standard of living and social protection benefits for people everywhere, including the poorest and most vulnerable.

SDG 10 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 breakdown of the indicator by citizenship is presented as a separate table, sdg_01_20a. It is used to monitor progress towards the social inclusion of migrants within the scope of SDG 10 on reducing inequalities.

Furthermore, the indicator is included as a secondary indicator in the Social Scoreboard for the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, and is a part of the multidimensional indicator on poverty and social exclusion. It can be considered as similar to global SDG indicator 1.2.1 "Proportion of population living below the national poverty line" respectively global SDG indicator 10.2.1 "Proportion of people living below 50 per cent of median income, by sex, age and persons with disabilities" and as part of global SDG indicator 1.2.2 "Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions". 

People at risk-of-poverty are persons with an equivalised disposable income below the risk-of-poverty threshold, which is set at 60 % of the national median equivalised disposable income (after social transfers). The indicator is part of the multidimensional poverty index.

The separate table sdg_01_20a shows the breakdown of the people at risk of poverty by citizenship. It shows the shares for citizens of the reporting country, for foreigners from EU countries, and for non-EU citizens.

% of population and thousand persons 

sdg_01_20a: % of population

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).

ESS (SILC)

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

Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), based on data reported by the countries.

Every year

The 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, North Macedonia, 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 2015.

< 3 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is less than 3 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 tables: sdg_01_20, sdg_01_20a

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

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