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The risk of poverty among the elderly
The risk of poverty is higher than that of other age groups in 10 of the 27 EU Member States (as shown in see Figure 9). In Cyprus, Bulgaria, Estonia and Latvia, a third or more of those aged 65 or over are at risk of poverty. At the other extreme, in Hungary and Luxembourg, the risk of poverty among the elderly is very low (5-6%). Women in this age group have a higher risk than men across the EU, as do those living alone, while the risk tends to increase with age for both men and women.
Risk of poverty by gender and household composition among the elderly
On average across the EU, the proportion of women aged 65 and over at risk of poverty is almost 5 percentage points more than for men (Table 7). In Estonia, Lithuania and Finland, the difference is over 15 percentage points. The proportion of women aged 75 and over at risk across the EU averages 4 percentage points more than for those aged 65-74.
The risk of poverty among women aged 65 and over living alone is twice as high as for those sharing a house with someone else. In Bulgaria, Estonia and Cyprus, it is over 66% and in Latvia, over 80%.
Trends in the risk of poverty among the elderly
The proportion of those aged 65 and over at risk of poverty increased between 2004 and 2008 in a number of countries (Figure 15, which also shows the confidence intervals for the estimates in each of the years, indicating that in many case, the changes are not statistically significant). The increase was particularly high in the three Baltic States, the proportion more than doubling in Latvia over the five years. There was a modest increase in Finland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The data suggest a recent increase in Poland and Sweden in 2007 and 2008.
There are a few countries where the proportion at risk fell, France, Ireland, Portugal and Greece, in particular, though in the latter two countries, it remains at over 20%, while in Hungary, there was a decline to around 5% in 2007.
Figure 15: Trends in the elderly at risk of poverty, 2004-2008 income years
