In Hungary, 3.29 million people or 33.5% of the total population were under at least one of the three criteria in 2013: at risk of poverty after social transfers, severely materially deprived and/or living in households with very low work intensity, mostly those who live in a household with a disposable income below the risk-of-poverty threshold.

In 2008, people in Hungary at risk of poverty or social exclusion numbered 2.79 million or 28.2% of the population, Eurostat said. A faster growth, 7.6 points to 35.7%, was registered only in Greece in the period.

Although ratios of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion have grown in most EU-countries during the period, altogether in 21 countries, Hungary was in the group of only five member states where the ratio was higher than a third of the total population: Bulgaria (48.0 %), Romania (40.4 %), Greece (35.7 %) and Latvia (35.1 %).

The lowest shares of persons being at risk of poverty or social exclusion were recorded in the Czech Republic (14.6 %), the Netherlands (15.9 %), Finland (16.0 %) and Sweden (16.4 %) in 2013.

On the EU average, the proportion of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2013, 24.5 %, has slightly decreased compared with 24.8 % in 2012 but was higher than the 23.8 % in 2008.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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