22.5 pct of EU population faces risk of poverty

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA

Some 22.5 percent of the European Union population faces the risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2017, the EU's statistical authority revealed on Wednesday.

Marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Eurostat said Bulgaria was the country with the highest share of population at risk at 38.9 percent, while the Czech Republic registered the lowest with 12.2 percent in the same period.

Among the total population of the EU, women shared 23.3 percent risk of poverty or social exclusion, while men registered some 21.6 percent last year.

In 2017, some 64.7 percent of the unemployed population in the EU were at risk of poverty, with the highest share recorded in Germany (81.8 percent) and the lowest in Poland (51.5 percent).

Only 12.3 percent of the EU population at risk of poverty or social exclusion was employed.

Eurostat also revealed that 24.5 percent of children in the EU were at risk of poverty and social exclusion -- ranging from 14.2 percent in the Czech Republic to 41.7 percent in Romania.

Last year, around 31 percent of the EU population could not afford a one-week annual holiday away from home, with the highest share in Romania (65 percent) and the lowest in Sweden (8.8 percent), the report added.