Work intensity reflects how much all working-age household members have worked as compared to their full potential. Generally, the higher the work intensity within a household (the closer people are to full employment), the lower the probability to be at-risk-of-poverty. Work intensity is shown with three levels, ranging from very low, to medium and very high.
In the EU, the at-risk-of-poverty rate for people aged less than 65 years living in households with very low work intensity was 64.0% in 2020. This rate ranged from 48.7% in Denmark and 49.9% in Ireland to more than 70.0% of the population in nine EU Member States. It reached a peak of 85.4% in Lithuania, followed by Romania (84.2%) and Latvia (80.6%).
Source dataset: ilc_li06
2020 data for the EU shows that employment helped prevent people from falling into poverty. The at-risk-of-poverty rate was 64.0% for people aged less than 65 years living in households with very low work intensity as compared to 5.3% for people living in households with very high work intensity, while the percentage for people living in households with medium work intensity was 23.6%.
Across all EU Member States, a similar pattern was observed, meaning that at risk of poverty decreased as work intensity increased.
Source dataset: ilc_li06
For more information:
- Statistics explained article on Living Conditions in Europe - Work intensity
- Dedicated section on income, social inclusion and living conditions
- Database on income and living conditions (ilc)
Methodological notes:
- Work intensity is defined as the ratio of the total number of months that all working-age household members have worked during the income reference year and the total number of months the same household members theoretically could have worked in the same period.
- Work intensity is considered as very low when the adults of the household had a working time equal or less than 20 % of their total combined work-time potential during the previous year. On the opposite, it is considered as very high when the adults’ working time exceeded 85 % of the work-time potential.
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