Living conditions in Europe - material deprivation and economic strain

Data extracted in October 2022.

Planned article update: September 2023.

Highlights

In 2021, 7.3 % of the overall EU population and more than one sixth of people at risk of poverty were unable to afford a meal with meat, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every second day.

In 2021, 11.9 % of the overall EU population faced material and social deprivation and 6.3 % severe material and social deprivation.

In 2021, 54.3 % of people living in single-adult households with dependent children in the EU were unable to meet unexpected financial expenses.

Share of the population unable to afford a meal with meat, fish or vegetarian equivalent every second day, 2021

Material and social deprivation defined as the inability to afford a set of predefined goods, services or social activities, that are considered by most people to be desirable or even necessary to experience an adequate quality of life, is a concept that may be used to complement a relative analysis of monetary poverty by providing information on absolute poverty.

Full article

Key findings

In 2021, 11.9 % of the EU population faced material and social deprivation and 6.3 % experienced severe material and social deprivation. People are considered in material and social deprivation if they cannot afford five or more of the thirteen standard deprivation items. If seven or more of the thirteen standard deprivation items cannot be afforded, they are considered in severe material deprivation. Please refer to the data sources section of this article for a list of the thirteen items.

A more detailed analysis of the individual items that are used to determine material and social deprivation reveals, among others, that in 2021, 7.3 % of the whole population in the EU were unable to afford a meal with meat, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every second day. Among those who were at risk of poverty, the share was 17.4 %. Regarding the ability to meet unexpected financial expenses, in 2021, 54.3 % of the EU population living in single-adult households with dependent children were unable to meet unexpected financial expenses.

Material and social deprivation

As shown in Figure 1, severe material and social deprivation rates for the EU Member States were generally considerably lower than the at-risk-of-poverty rates in 2021. For the EU, the severe material and social deprivation rate was 6.3 % in 2021 (compared with an at-risk-of-poverty rate of 16.8 %). This rate varied substantially across EU Member States (see Figure 1.1). In 2021, the highest rates were 23.1 % in Romania, 19.1 % in Bulgaria and 13.9 % in Greece, while the lowest rates, all between 1.8 % and 1.1 %, were in Czechia, Austria, Slovenia, Sweden, and Finland.

Figure 1: Material and social deprivation rate and at-risk-of poverty rate, 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (ilc_mdsd07) (ilc_mdsd11) and (ilc_li02)

Figure 2 shows that in 2021, the rate of severe material and social deprivation in the EU Member States was 0.5 percentage points lower than in 2020, down from 6.8 % to 6.3 %. The largest decreases were observed in Bulgaria (down 3.0 percentage points), in Romania (down 2.2 percentage points), in Latvia and Lithuania (both down 1.7 percentage points). Increases in the severe material and social deprivation rate were only observed in Slovakia (1.2 points), Luxembourg (0.7 percentage points), Portugal (0.6 percentage points), Poland and Malta (both by 0.3 percentage points).

Figure 2: Severe material and social deprivation rate, in 2020 and 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (ilc_mdsd11)

Population less than 18 years old and females are more likely to experience severe material and social deprivation

In the EU, people aged 65 years and over recorded the lowest severe material and social deprivation rate (5.3 %) compared to people aged 18-64 years and people aged less than 18 years (6.3 % and 7.5 % respectively). This pattern was observed for seven EU Member States. The highest severe material and social deprivation rates among the three age groups were recorded for people less than 18 years old in Greece (16.1 %) and in Romania (28.2 %).

In 2021, the severe material and social deprivation rate was higher for women than for men in the EU population and for people in the age groups 18-64 years (by 0.6 percentage points), as well as for the people aged 65 and over (by 1.4 percentage points). The only exception was for the age group less than 18 years old for which the severe material and social deprivation rate was the same for both men and women (7.5 %).

Table 1: Severe material and social deprivation rate, analysed by sex and age group, 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (ilc_mdsd11)

Single-adult households with dependent children are most often affected by severe material and social deprivation

In 2021, 13.6 % of the EU population living in single-adult households with dependent children was severely materially and socially deprived; this was the highest share among the different household compositions as shown in Figure 3. The second largest severe material and social deprivation rate was recorded for the population living in households composed of two adults with three or more dependent children (9.0 %). The severe material and social deprivation rate was also considerably higher than the overall EU average (6.3 %) for households composed of single adults: the rates were 8.6 % for single females and 8.5 % for single males.

Figure 3: Severe material and social deprivation rate, analysed by household composition, 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (ilc_mdsd13)

Across the individual EU Member States in 2021:

Single-adult households with dependent children were most likely to experience severe material and social deprivation (when compared with the other household compositions) in 20 EU Member States. These percentages ranged from 0.9 % in Slovenia and 47.2 % in Romania.

Two adults’ households with at least one adult aged 65 years or over were least likely to experience severe material and social (when compared with the other household compositions) in 16 EU Member States. These percentages ranged from 0.5 % in Cyprus up to 23.9 % in Romania.

Economic strain

Over 7.0 % of the whole EU population and 17.4 % of the people at risk of poverty were unable to afford a meal with meat, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every second day

In 2021, more than one sixth (17.4 %) of people across the EU who were at risk of poverty reported being unable to afford a meal with meat, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every second day (see Figure 4). This share among the EU Member States ranged from 2.4 % in Cyprus and 6.0 % in Ireland up to 34.0 % in Greece, 34.4 % in Romania, 36.0 % in Slovakia, and 44.9 % in Bulgaria.

Figure 4: Share of the population unable to afford a meal with meat, fish or vegetarian equivalent every second day, 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (ilc_mdes03)

The share of the total EU population unable to afford a meal with meat, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every second day was 7.3 %. This share ranged from 22.4 % in Bulgaria, to less than 2.0 % in Cyprus (0.4 %), Ireland and Sweden (both 1.6 %) and the Netherlands (1.8 %).

Households with children are less likely to be able to meet unexpected financial expenses

The ability to meet unexpected financial expenses is a subjective measure of financial security and may be used to identify risks and vulnerabilities that are not necessarily revealed through an analysis of income-based indicators. Note that this indicator provides wealth-based information rather than information relating to income or expenditure; as such, it presents complementary information that may be used to analyse the financial situation of households. Overall, 31.4 % of the EU population living in households with dependent children was unable to meet unexpected financial expenses in 2021, compared with 30.1 % of the population who were living in households without children (see Table 2). Among households with dependent children, the higher shares were observed for households with two adults and three or more dependent children (37.5 %) and especially for households composed of a single adult with dependent children (54.3 %).

Table 2: Share of the population unable to meet unexpected financial expenses, analysed by household composition, 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (ilc_mdes04)

In the EU Member States, at least 40.0 % of the population living in households with dependent children in 2021 were unable to meet unexpected financial expenses in Croatia, Romania, Cyprus, and Greece (where a share of 47.7 % was recorded). In contrast, this share was less than 25% in the Netherlands, Malta, Denmark, Czechia, and Poland (where a share of 19.6 % was recorded).

A more detailed analysis reveals that more than half (54.3%) of the EU population living in single adult households with dependent children were not able to meet unexpected financial expenses. This is especially true in Romania (66.9 %), Ireland (70.1 %) and Cyprus (where a peak of 76.1 % was recorded, the highest among all household compositions analysed in Table 2).

Among households without dependent children, the level of inability to meet unexpected financial expenses was higher for households composed of a single female (40.2 %) compared to households composed of a single male (36.7 %).

Households composed of two adults, generally recorded lower levels of inability to deal with unexpected financial expenses. This was particularly the case for the subpopulation living in households composed of two adults with at least one member aged 65 years or over, among which less than a quarter (22.6 %) of individuals in the EU were unable to meet unexpected financial expenses in 2021.

2.7 % of the whole EU population and 8.4% of people at risk of poverty were unable to afford an internet connection

In 2021, 2.7 % of the EU population was unable to afford an internet connection (see Figure 5). The highest rates were in Bulgaria (8.6 %) and in Romania (11.7 %). By contrast, less than 1.0 % of the population was unable to afford an internet connection in Denmark, Austria (both 0.7 %), Finland, and Sweden (both 0.5 %), Cyprus, and the Netherlands (both 0.4 %), and Luxembourg (0.3 %).

Figure 5: Share of the population unable to afford internet connection, 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (ilc_li02) and (ilc_mddu07a)

In 2021, 8.4 % of people in the EU who were at risk of poverty reported an inability to afford an internet connection. Among the EU Member States, this share ranged from 0.4 % in Luxembourg and 1.3 % in the Netherlands, up to 20.6 % in Hungary, 21.7 % in Bulgaria, and 30.4 % in Romania.

More than 9.0 % of the whole EU population and more than one in five people at risk of poverty were living in households with arrears

In 2021, 9.1 % of the EU population was living in households with arrears regarding mortgage or rent, utility bills or hire purchase (see Figure 6). The highest shares were observed in Bulgaria (20.4 %) and in Greece (36.4 %). By contrast, less than 5.0 % of the population were living in households with arrears regarding mortgage or rent, utility bills or hire purchase in Czechia (2.4 %), the Netherlands (2.6 %), and (4.2 %) in Belgium.

Figure 6: Share of the population living in households with arrears (mortgage or rent, utility bills or hire purchase), 2021
(%)
Source: Eurostat (ilc_mdes05)

In 2021, over one fifth (20.9 %) of people across the EU who were at risk of poverty reported living in households with arrears regarding mortgage or rent, utility bills or hire purchase. Among the EU Member States, the share ranged from 9.1 % in the Netherlands, 9.2 % in Estonia and 9.8 % in Czechia, up to 36.2 % in Bulgaria and 58.4 % in Greece.

Source data for tables and graphs

Material deprivation and economic strain: tables and figures

Data sources

The data used in this article are primarily derived from EU-SILC. EU-SILC data are compiled annually and are the main source of statistics that measure income and living conditions in Europe; it is also the main source of information used to link different aspects relating to the quality of life of households and individuals.

The reference population for the information presented in this article is all private households and their current members residing in the territory of an EU Member State (or non-member country) at the time of data collection; persons living in collective households and in institutions are generally excluded from the target population. The data for the EU are population-weighted averages of national data.

Tables in this article use the following notation:

Value in italics	data value is forecasted, provisional or estimated and is therefore likely to change;
:	not available, confidential or unreliable value.

Context

Material and social deprivation indicators provide a measure related to the (in)ability of individuals to be able to afford a set of thirteen predefined material items that are considered by most people to be desirable or even necessary to experience an adequate quality of life. The list of thirteen items includes the following (seven related to the household and six related to the individual):

At household level:

Capacity to face unexpected expenses
Capacity to afford paying for one week annual holiday away from home
Capacity to being confronted with payment arrears (on mortgage or rental payments, utility bills, hire purchase instalments or other loan payments)
Capacity to afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or vegetarian equivalent every second day
Ability to keep home adequately
Have access to a car/van for personal use
Replacing worn-out furniture

At individual level:

Having internet connection
Replacing worn-out clothes by some new ones
Having two pairs of properly fitting shoes (including a pair of all-weather shoes)
Spending a small amount of money each week on him/herself
Having regular leisure activities
Getting together with friends/family for a drink/meal at least once a month

The material and social deprivation rate is defined as the proportion of the population that is unable to afford five or more out of this list of thirteen items.

The severe material and social deprivation rate is defined as the proportion of the population that is unable to afford seven or more of the above-mentioned items.

The severe material and social deprivation indicator (SMSD) is part of the at risk of poverty or social exclusion rate defined in the framework of the EU 2030 target on poverty and social exclusion.