Statistics Explained

Archive:Material deprivation statistics – financial stress and lack of durables

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Authors: KACZMAREK-FIRTH Agata and RUSU Cristian


This article is part of the Eurostat online publication Living conditions providing statistics on material deprivation in the European Union (EU) with the focus on intra-household sharing of resources for 2014. The publication presents a brief analysis of several different material deprivation variables (as part of the 2014 EU-SILC ad-hoc module) which relate to the household (as a whole), adults (people aged[1] 16 and over) and children (all household members aged between 1 and 15). Observed variables, among others, are related to financial stress and durables, and leisure and social activities as a broader perspective of social inclusion measurements.

Even though it is tempting to assume that a change in a household’s income will affect all its members to the same extent, the reality could differ. Using only household level indicators and attribute them equally to each member of the household, could possibly lead to unobserved child poverty and child deprivation as well as of the other age- and gender-groups within the same household. In order to shed some light on the intra-household transfers and within-household differences in living conditions, the EU-SILC included a special ad-hoc material deprivation module (for the first time in 2009, and revised in 2014).

The variables related to children’s items are collected for the whole group of children[2] with one very specific rule: If at least one child does not have the item in question, the whole group of children in the household is assumed to not have the item either. On the other hand, information on basic needs, as well as leisure and social activities for adults is provided for each household member aged 16 and over.

Analyses used for the article cover all EU Member States and several non-EU Member States.

Figure 1: Households which cannot afford a meal for all children every day, 2014 (% of children)
Source: Eurostat (EU-SILC module 2014 data - variable HD140 - weighted frequences)
Table 1: Lack of space, 2014 (% of people)
Source: Eurostat (EU-SILC module 2014 data - variables HD220 and Overcrowded - weighted frequences)
Infograph 1: Men and women in EU who could not afford new clothes, 2014 (% of people aged 16 and over)
Source: Eurostat (EU-SILC module 2014 data - variable PD020 - weighted frequences)
Figure 2: People in EU who cannot afford new clothes by gender and main age-groups, 2014 (% of people)
Source: Eurostat (EU-SILC module 2014 data - variable PD020 - weighted frequences and ilc_mddd11)
Figure 3: People`s(¹) ability to afford new clothes and shoes and ability of their household to afford it for all children, EU-28, 2014 (% of adults)
Source: Eurostat (EU-SILC module 2014 data - variables PD020 and PD030 - weighted frequences)
Table 2: People`s(¹) ability to afford leisure activities and ability of their household to afford it for all children, EU-28, 2014 (% of adults)
Source: Eurostat (EU-SILC module 2014 data - variables HD180 and PD060 - weighted frequences)
Figure 4: People who cannot afford to spend money without consulting with someone, by gender, 2014 (% of people aged 16 and over)
Source: Eurostat (EU-SILC module 2014 data - variable PD070 - weighted frequences)
Table 3: People who cannot afford to spend money without consulting with someone, by monetary poverty, 2014 (% of people aged 16 and over)
Source: Eurostat (EU-SILC module 2014 data - variable PD070 - weighted frequences)
Infograph 2: People who cannot afford to spend money without consulting with someone, by education level, 2014 (% of people aged 16 and over)
Source: Eurostat (EU-SILC module 2014 data - variable PD070 - weighted frequences)


Main statistical findings

Child deprivation

In 2014, 27.4% of children aged below 16 in the EU-28 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) compared with 25.5% of adults aged between 16 and 64, and 17.7% of the elderly (aged 65 or over).

The main EU-SILC indicators (Europe 2020 target on poverty and social exclusion) measure living conditions using general indicators of the household as a whole and they are based on the assumption that the recourses are equally distributed to all household members.

This part of the article focuses on several material deprivation items – meal and lack of space, and on the household’s (in)ability to afford them for all children and (or) for all its members.

Due to specific characteristics of the collected information (i.e. the number of variables and breakdown details) and missing values, some households (and their members) are excluded from the analysis.


Food-deprivation

In 2014, based on the EU-SILC survey, 13.2% of children were living in households which could not afford a meal[3] for all children at least once a day.

Figure 1 shows that the highest proportions of children, among EU-28, who lived in households which could not afford one meal per a day for all children, were recorded in Bulgaria (42.4%), Hungary (22%) and Romania (21.6%). The lowest proportions of children, who lived in such households were in Sweden, Finland and Denmark (0.0%, 1.2% and 0.7% respectively).

In 2014, it was observed that the proportions of children who lived in household which were at risk of poverty were much higher when compared with the ones who were not (at EU28 level - 7.1% in household not at risk of poverty and 28.8% in household at risk of poverty). Moreover, 14.9% of children in the EU lived in households which could not afford a meal for all its members at least every second day and 13.2% of children in households which could not afford a meal for all children every day.

Lack of space

In 2014, 40.7% of children in the EU lived in overcrowded[4] households. Also, 14.1% of children lived in households which could not afford a suitable place for them to study or do homework.

In Romania and Hungary, over 80% (81.8% and 81.4% respectively) of children lived in overcrowded households which were also at risk of poverty. Moreover, in Romania, around 64.3% of children lived in overcrowded households which were not at risk of poverty. The lowest proportions of children (below 5%) who lived in overcrowded households were in Belgium (2.7%), Cyprus (2.9%), Ireland and Norway (4.1% both).

Among the EU-28, Bulgaria was the country with the highest percentage (64.0%) of children who lived in households at risk of poverty and did not have space[5] to study due to financial reasons. On the contrary, Finland had the lowest share of children who lived in households with the aforementioned characteristics – only 3.4%.

Even though there is an evident difference in whether a household is at risk of poverty or not, the proportions of children who lived in households which were not at risk of poverty but who still could not afford a space for school-age children, were relatively high- Bulgaria (28.1%), Romania (18.0%) and Spain (17.4%). However, for majority of EU and non-EU Member States, this share of children was lower than 4%.

Since the shares of children who lived in overcrowded households for most EU-28 countries were relatively high (at EU28 level - 36.5% in households not at risk of poverty and 54.6% in households at risk of poverty), the aim of the next part of the article is to see if the lack of space for studying and doing homework for school-aged children is linked to a lack of space.

The majority of people lived in households which were not overcrowded and where suitable space existed. However (see Table 1), in Belgium and Bulgaria almost 10% of households were not overcrowded but still did not have space to study for children. The opposite was observed in Hungary, Latvia and Poland, where over 50% of people lived in overcrowded households but with enough space for school-aged children to study or do their homework (57.3%, 54.4% and 52.2% respectively).

Inter- and intra-generational differences

One of the main EU-SILC indicators – AROPE, showed that young persons (under 25) present the most vulnerable group. More precisely, the percentage of people who lived in severe material deprivation and in households at risk of poverty (AROPE) was slowly decreasing with age – from 31.9% for age group 18-24 to 17.8% for people aged 65 and over.

The aim of this part of the article is to apply a broader perspective of material deprivation, i.e. inability to afford a selection of items (goods or services) and if this pattern still exists if we observe them at personal level. To adequate measure children’s material deprivation it is necessary to look not only at the material deprivation that solely affects children but also at the material deprivation that affects the entire household as this is likely to impact their living conditions.

New clothes and two pairs of shoes

In 2014, 16.7% of people in the EU aged 16 and over could not afford to replace worn-out clothes by some new (not second-hand) ones[6] and 18.9% of people of the same age could not afford two pairs of properly fitting shoes (including a pair of all-weather shoes)[7].

Infograph 1 shows percentages of people in the EU aged 16 and over who could not afford new clothes by gender. The highest proportion of people who could not afford to replace worn-out clothes with new was observed in Bulgaria (42.4%), Romania (31.6%) and Hungary (29.6%). The share was the lowest with less than 3% in Greece (1.3%) and Sweden (2.2%).

In some countries not only the percentages of people who could not afford new clothes were high but also the percentages of people who could not replace clothes for other reasons. This was noted in Italy, Croatia and Slovakia where over 10% of people could not replace clothes for other reason (13.4%, 12.9% and 11.5% respectively).

In almost all of the EU-28 MS, women were less likely to be able to replace clothes than men regardless of the reasons (financial or non-financial). More precisely, at EU28 level – 17.6% women and 15.7% of men were not able to afford new clothes. Only in Spain and Ireland, the percentage of men was higher than percentage of women but that difference is not significant.

Figure 2 shows that the severe material deprivation rate at household level, for the age group 18-24 was the highest, while the age group 65 and over had the lowest rate. Yet the largest proportion of persons aged 18 and over could afford new clothes. People aged 65 and over were more vulnerable than the age group 18-24 and had the lowest proportion of those who could afford to replace worn out clothes with new ones.

When it comes to gender differences, for all age groups except for people aged 18-24, women were less likely to afford new clothes than men. The proportion of women who could not afford new clothes was slowly increasing with age. The proportion of women was around 14.0% for the age group 18-24 while for those aged 65 and over was around 22.2%.

Figure 3 shows that around 8.9% of people in the EU aged 16 and over could not afford new clothes for themselves but their household could afford it for all children. In addition, around 6.9% of people in the EU aged 16 and over could not afford two pairs of shoes for themselves but their household could afford it for all children. Moreover, it was observed that in 10.6% of households both adults and children cannot afford clothes and 14.2% cannot afford shoes.


Leisure activities

Regular participation in a leisure activity (both for children and adults) refers to activities such as sport, cinema, concert, etc. which should occur outside home and which should cost money[8]

  1. for entrance and/or travel costs (e.g. swimming),
  2. for purchase costs (e.g. riding a bicycle) or
  3. for participating costs in an organised play event (e.g. football club fees) .


Households with children are usually financially worse off compared to households without children due to high cost of bringing up children. EU-SILC 2014 (variable HD180: Regular leisure activity) showed that with an increase of the number of children, percentage of people who lived in households which could not afford leisure activities for all children was also increasing (24.1% for one child and 50.7% for four and more children at EU level). Romania and Bulgaria had the highest share of households which could not afford leisure activities for children. In those two countries around half of the observed people who lived in households with one child also lived in household which could not afford leisure activities for that child (53.1% in Romania and 45.7% in Bulgaria).

Moreover in Bulgaria, all people who lived in households with four and more children could not afford leisure activities for all children. While, in Denmark, Luxembourg and Finland less than 6% of households could not afford leisure activities for all children regardless of the number of children in the household.

Observing intra-generational differences, the 2014 EU-SILC survey showed that the main difference between age groups in ability to participate in leisure activities was mainly due to non-financial reasons. More precisely, the proportion of people who were not participated in leisure activities due to other but financial reason was 16.4% for age group 18-24 and 54.1% for people aged 65 and over.

Table 2 shows the inter-generational differences when it comes to the ability to afford leisure activities for household members belonging to different age groups at EU level. Compared to the ability to afford new clothes, far fewer people lived in households where both observed person and children could afford regular leisure activities (around 35.3% at EU level).

Among the EU-28,the lowest proportion of households where both adults and children could participate in paid leisure activities was observed in Romania (8.5%) and Bulgaria (15.8%) and the highest in Ireland (77.5%) and the Netherlands (69.3%).

In Spain and Hungary over 20% of adults could not afford regular leisure activities but they lived in households which could afford it for all children (23.1% and 21.4% respectively). While, in Finland, Sweden and Czech Republic these percentages were below 3% (1.3%, 2.0% and 2.3%).


Deprived adults

Spending a small amount of money without consulting with someone

In 2014, 25.2% of women and 23.0% of men in the EU aged 16 and over could not afford to spend a small amount of money on themselves without consulting with someone.

Inability for persons aged 16 and over (further in text – adult) to freely spend money each week on themselves (e.g. to go to the movies, to buy a gift for a friend, to go to the hairdresser, etc.) without consulting with someone, could show possible intra-household (dis)allocation of resources[9].

Figure 4 shows that among both EU and non-EU Member States (except Denmark where the percentages are the same for both sexes: 9%), women were more vulnerable, i.e. more women than men could not afford to spend money freely.

Observing gender differences, neither age nor level of education changes the pattern – in all cases women were less likely to spend small amount of money without consulting someone. Also, based on the 2014 EU-SILC survey, women were more deprived if they do not live with a partner in a same household (at EU28 level). However, it was observed that unemployed men were, in more than half of all observed countries, more deprived than women.

Living in a household which is at-risk-of-poverty was increasing the inability of spending money without consulting with someone (see Table 3). In all observed countries, except Finland, the proportions of people aged 16 and over who were not able to freely spend money were significantly higher for those who lived in households which were at risk of poverty compared to those who did not (20.0% in not at-risk and 44.6% in at-risk-of poverty households, at EU level).

In Romania and Bulgaria the proportion of people who were not able to spend money without consulting with someone regardless of monetary poverty was relatively high compared to other EU Member States (48.1% and 33.0% for those in not at-risk and 77.4% and 70.2% for those in at-risk-of-poverty households respectively). The lowest share was observed in Finland where only around 1.4% of adults in total was not able to spend small amount of money without consulting someone (1.2% in not at-risk and 2.1% in at-risk-of poverty households).

Even though the education level[10] does not play a significant role when it comes to the gender differences, in general, it was observed that it had a huge impact on the ability of people to spend money without consulting with someone (see Infograph 2). In all countries people with the lowest attained education level had the highest inability to freely spend money.

The smallest differences between low and high educated people were noted in Estonia and Denmark while countries with the biggest differences were Luxembourg and Czech Republic. The lowest share of low educated adults who could not spend money without consulting someone was noted in Finland (1.5%) and the highest in Romania (70.3%). Moreover, the highest share of the highly educated people who could not spend money without consulting someone was observed in Greece (25.6%) and the lowest in Finland (0.8%).

Data sources and availability

The data used in this section is primarily derived from the EU-SILC. The EU-SILC is carried out annually and is the main survey that measures income and living conditions in Europe, and is the main source of information used to link different aspects of Quality of Life at household and individual level.

Material deprivation refers to several different material deprivation variables (as part of 2014 SILC ad-hoc module) which relate to the household (as a whole), “adults” (people aged 16 and over) and children (all household members aged between 1 and 15). Observed variables, among others, are related to financial stress and durables, and leisure and social activities.

Income refers to income levels (‘Mean and median income by age and sex’), monetary poverty (‘at-risk-of-poverty rate (AROP) by poverty threshold and age’). Material conditions refers to material deprivation (‘severely materially deprived’ people). Material deprivation ad-hoc module refers to an additional set of variables conducted in 2014 survey year.

The size of the initial sample is reduced based on the number of households which do not have children of this age. Also, some items could be inapplicable or answers could be missing, which reduces the sample again. When it comes to data collected at personal level (taking into account the characteristics of the information), only personal interviews are allowed. This means that proxy interviews are not taken into account which, in some cases, could reduce the size of the sample used in calculations.


Context

At the Laeken European Council in December 2001, European heads of state and government endorsed a first set of common statistical indicators for social exclusion and poverty that are subject to a continuing process of refinement by the indicators sub-group (ISG) of the social protection committee (SPC). These indicators are an essential element in the open method of coordination (OMC) to monitor the progress made by the EU’s Member States in alleviating poverty and social exclusion.

EU-SILC is the reference source for EU statistics on income and living conditions and, in particular, for indicators concerning social inclusion. In the context of the Europe 2020 strategy, the European Council adopted in June 2010 a headline target for social inclusion — namely, that by 2020 there should be at least 20 million fewer people in the EU at risk of poverty or social exclusion than there were in 2008. The EU-SILC is the source used to monitor progress towards this headline target, which is measured through an indicator that combines the at-risk-of-poverty rate, the severe material deprivation rate, and the proportion of people living in households with very low work intensity — see the article on social inclusion statistics for more information.


See also

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Statistical books


News releases


Statistics in focus

Main tables

Income and living conditions (t_ilc)

Database

At-risk-of-poverty rate by poverty threshold, age and sex - EU-SILC survey (ilc_li02)
Material deprivation by dimension (ilc_mddd)
Main indicator – Europe 2020 target on poverty and social exclusion (ils_peps)

Dedicated section

Methodology / Metadata

Source data for tables, figures and maps (MS Excel)

Other information

Notes

  1. ↑ Age refers to the age at the end of the income reference period.
  2. ↑ Further in text, term “children” refers to children aged between 1 and 15.
  3. ↑ Further in text, term “meal” refers to meat, chicken or fish or vegetarian equivalent.
  4. ↑ If the household does not have at its disposal a minimum number of rooms considered adequate, it is defined as overcrowded.
  5. ↑ Term “space” refers to a suitable place for children (going to school) to study or do their homework.
  6. ↑ Further in the text, term “clothes” refers to new (not second-hand) clothes.
  7. ↑ Further in the text, term "shoes" refers to two pairs of properly fitting shoes including a pair of all-weather shoes.
  8. ↑ Further in text will be used term “leisure activities” instead.
  9. ↑ Further in text, term “freely spend money” refers to money which could be spend each week on itself without consulting with someone.
  10. ↑ Educational levels refer to ISCED-97 classification where low education corresponds to ED0-2 (less than primary, primary and lower secondary education), middle education corresponds to ED3_4 (upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education) and high education corresponds to ED5-8 (tertiary education).


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