TIRANA, Nov. 1 – One in two Albanians are at risk of poverty and social exclusion, according to data released by the European Institute of Statistics.
The Eurostat data places Albania in Europe’s worst performing spot on the meaningful metric. Eurostat measures data for EU member states, and a select few other countries, including potential EU members in the Western Balkans.
Montenegro followed in the second worst spot — with 40 percent, followed by Turkey with 38 percent and North Macedonia with 35 percent.
The average for all countries for which Eurostat measures data was 22 percent of the population.
At risk-of-poverty are persons with an equivalised disposable income below the risk-of-poverty threshold, which is set at 60 percent of the national median equivalised disposable income (after social transfers).
Inside the European Union, Romania and Bulgaria performed worst in the indicator, with both hovering around 35 percent.
As is often the case, the Albanian Statistics Institute had very different numbers the last time it looked at these indicators. In 2018, Albania’s Instat reported the at-risk-of-poverty rate at just 23.4 percent.
In Eurostat data, the indicator corresponds to the sum of persons who are: at risk of poverty or severely materially deprived or living in households with very low work intensity.
Material deprivation covers indicators relating to economic strain and durables. Severely materially deprived persons have living conditions severely constrained by a lack of resources, they experience at least four out of nine following deprivations items: cannot afford to pay rent or utility bills, keep home adequately warm, face unexpected expenses, eat meat, fish or a protein equivalent every second day, a week holiday away from home, a car, a washing machine, a colour TV, or a telephone.
People living in households with very low work intensity are those aged 0-59 living in households where the adults (aged 18-59) work 20 percent or less of their total work potential during the past year.
