As many as 752,000 people in Croatia live at risk of poverty, 8% of whom claim that they can barely make ends meet, while only 1.5% of the population say that it is very easy for them, according to data from the Croatian state statistics bureau (DZS).

The poverty risk rate in Croatia in 2022 was 18%, which is 1.2 percentage points less than in 2021, say the DZS on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The poverty indicators were calculated according to the data collected by the Population Income Survey, which is harmonised with the Eurostat methodology.

The at-risk-of-poverty rate does not show how many people are really poor, but how many have an income below the at-risk threshold. It includes people who are in severe material and social deprivation, that is, those who live in households with low work intensity, head of the social research sector at the DZS Dubravka Rogic-Hadzalic told Hina.

In Croatia, 19.9% of people were in such a position last year, which is 1% less than in 2021, when this indicator was 20.9%. The share of people living in households with very low work intensity (up to 64 years of age) was 6.3%, which is 1.2 percentage points less than a year earlier.

The inequality of income distribution amounted to 4.6% (4.8% in 2021), which represents the ratio of the 20% of the population with the highest and the lowest income.

Only 1.5% of people make ends meet very easily

According to age, the poverty risk rate is highest among people over 65 and is 32.4%, which is the same as the rate in 2021. It is more pronounced among women (36.5%), and less among men (26.6%). Eight percent of people living in households stated that it is very difficult to make ends meet, 18.6% of people have difficulty making ends meet, and 42.7% have little difficulty (43.5% in 2021).

The lowest percentage of people, 1.5%, lives in households that make ends meet very easily and is lower than a year earlier (1.6% in 2021), 5.2% of people said that they easily make ends meet, and 23.9% of households mostly easily (22.3% of last year).

According to the level of education, the rate of risk of poverty is highest for people with preschool and primary school education and amounts to 35.4%. The lowest rate is recorded for persons with higher education – 4.2% (5.1% in 2021).

According to the regions, for Pannonian Croatia the risk rate is 25.9% (27% in 2021), for Adriatic Croatia 18.2%, for the City of Zagreb 9.5% (11.6% in 2021) and for Northern Croatia 16%.

Poverty risk rate for the unemployed is 42.6%

The most vulnerable are unemployed persons (42.6%), pensioners (29.2%) and others with inactive status (30.7%). Also, single-female households (54.4%), single-member households over 65 regardless of gender (56.5%), households with dependent children and one parent and one or more dependent children (24.9%), and households with two adults are at greater risk. persons with three or more children (23.3%).

According to the 2021 survey, 7% of people in households cannot afford adequate heating in the coldest months, and 41.7% of people cannot afford a week of annual vacation outside the home for all members of the household. Also, 6.9% of people said they could not afford a meal with meat, chicken or fish every other day.

According to Eurostat data, in 2022, 95.3 million people in the EU were at risk of poverty (22% of the population). The highest percentage was recorded in Romania (34%), followed by Bulgaria (32%), Greece and Spain with 26% each, and the lowest in the Czech Republic (12% ), Slovenia (13%) and Poland (16%).