In 2021, 84.0% of the EU population lived in a household whose net income either remained stable (66.5%) or increased (17.5%) compared with 2020. On the contrary, 16.0% of the EU population reported a decrease.
The share of the population living in a household with a more or less stable income in 2021 compared with the previous year was above 50.0% in all the EU Member States, ranging from 50.7% in Cyprus to 84.0% in Italy.
Source: Eurostat, EU-SILC 2021
The share of the population that declared an increase in their household income ranged from 4.9% in Italy to 34.8% in Czechia, while the share that declared a decrease ranged from 5.4% in Romania to 27.6% in Cyprus.
In 17 of the EU Member States, the share of the population that reported an increase in income was higher than the share that reported a decrease. The difference was more than 10 percentage points (pp) in 8 of these Member States. On the other hand, the share of the population that reported a decrease in income was higher than the share that reported an increase in 9 Member States with the difference being below 10 pp in 8 of these Member States.
For more information:
- Statistics Explained article on the impact of COVID-19 on households
- Dedicated section on income and living conditions
- Database on income and living conditions
Methodological notes:
- Germany: data with low reliability.
- Hungary: data are not available for the time being. As a result, the EU aggregate is estimated.
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