Income and living conditions – Overview
Introduction
What information can I find here?
Statistics on income, social inclusion and living conditions cover objective and subjective aspects of these themes in both monetary and non-monetary terms for both households and individuals. The following aspects of the topic are covered by the statistics:
- income
- poverty
- social exclusion
- housing
- labour
- education
- health
The main source for the compilation of statistics on income, social inclusion and living conditions is the EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) instrument. Additional data on living conditions can be found in other statistical domains, notably population, health, education and training and labour market.
More information on EU-SILC
The EU-SILC is the EU reference source for comparative statistics on income distribution and social inclusion at the European level. It provides two types of annual data for the countries of the EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey:
- Cross-sectional data pertaining to a given time or a certain time period with variables on income, poverty, social exclusion and other living conditions, and
- Longitudinal data pertaining to individual-level changes over time, observed periodically over a four year period.
EU-SILC does not rely on a common questionnaire or a survey but on the idea of a framework. The latter defines the harmonised lists of target primary (annual) and secondary (every four years or less frequently) variables to be transmitted to Eurostat; common guidelines and procedures; common concepts (household and income) and classifications aimed at maximising comparability of the information produced.
The statistics are available either in form of microdata (limited access, see 
description of the datasets) or as aggregated data (publically available in the online database).
The aggregated results are used for example in the context of the Europe 2020 indicators on income distribution and monetary poverty, living conditions and material deprivation.
Highlights
This publication provides a picture of current living conditions in Europe, as well as the socio-economic factors affecting the everyday life of Europeans.
Compare yourself to other Europeans
This visualisation tool 'You in the EU' allows you to easily compare your own living conditions to other people in your country and in the EU.
Learn about at risk of poverty or social exclusion
With this bar chart you can find out if the share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in your country is higher of lower compared with others.
Discover what's behind EU-SILC
Have a look at this helpful online publication in Statistics Explained describing background information on EU SILC, such as concepts, data collection or quality.
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Explore Further
Have a look at the EU and national quality reports with information on different related aspects.