The percentage of Greeks at risk of poverty or social exclusion fell by three percentage points to 31.8% in 2018 from 34.8% in 2017, or 3,348,000 persons, Hellenic Statistical Authority said in a report on Friday.
The statistics service said that the number of households at risk of poverty totaled 753,174 out of a total 4,125,263 households in the country.
Te poverty risk for children aged up to 17 years old was 22.7% in 2018, down 1.8% points from 2017.
The poverty threshold is 4,718 euros per year for each person, or 9,908 euros for households with two adults and two children aged below 14 years old.
The report said 5.6% of the population was fully satisfied with its life in 2018, while a 2.1% said it was not satisfied at all.
The statistics service also said the income share of the richest 20% of the population was 5.5 times more than the share of the poorest 20% of the population in 2018.
PS Poverty threshold at €4,718 per year or €393 per month? Really? Who can live on less than 500-600 euros per month in Greece, where prices to cover basic needs such as food (incl proteins like meat, poultry etc) electricity, heating, telephone, transport cost, services are quite expensive when compared to the average wages. Not to mention the extra cost for a health care visit and medication, just to mention a few.
Much to my knowledge, the poverty threshold refers to gross income.
But hey, it must have been the IMF definition as it wanted to tax annual incomes of below 6,000 euros which is the average poverty threshold in the European Union.
