Material deprivation and risk of poverty

The relative number of people who are materially deprived according to the latest data (for 2009), as measured by the indicator, varies from 4% of the population in Luxembourg and just under 5% in Sweden to half in Romania and over half in Bulgaria (Figure 1, where countries are ranked according to the proportion materially deprived).

There is very little relationship between the proportion measured as being deprived and the relative number at risk of poverty in the sense of having an income below 60% of the median. A number of countries that have a relatively low material deprivation rate have a relatively high at-risk-of-poverty rate - Spain and the UK, in particular. Conversely, a number of countries with an above-average deprivation rate have a below-average risk of poverty, specifically the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. It is evident, therefore, that the indicator of material deprivation does not duplicate the risk-of-poverty indicator, at least across countries, but instead provides additional information about the social situation in different Member States.

Figure 1: The proportion of the population materially deprived and at risk of poverty, 2008