Off the wire
• AfDB approves 93 mln USD loan to support Tanzania's agriculture sector  • European Parliament calls for reintroducing visa requirements for U.S. citizens  • NATO, Russia to hold Council meeting next Monday  • China sees fast development in robot industry  • China's crude coal average daily output sets record high in Nov  • Rebels' evacuation from Aleppo to continue during night: state TV  • Interview: Spain's economic improvements unevenly distributed,says scholar  • Aleppo's liberation writes new chapter of history: Assad  • Xinhua World News Summary at 1600 GMT, Dec. 15  • Top Spanish Athletics coach facing sexual abuse charges  
You are here: 　 Home

Portugal's poverty risk falls but affects 2 million people in 2015

Xinhua, December 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Portugal's risk of poverty rate fell in 2015, but still affected almost 2 million people, the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics (INE) said in a statement on Thursday.

The figures revealed by the statistics agency showed that 19 percent of Portuguese residents were at risk of poverty in 2015, 0.5 percentage point less than the previous year.

The risk of poverty rate takes into account the proportion of habitants with yearly net incomes below 5,268 euros (5,482 U.S.dollars) per year, or 439 euros per month.

Risk of poverty was reduced for both women and men but continued to affect more women in 2015, 19.6 percent of women compared to 18.2 percent of men.

The National Institute of Statistics said the highest risk of poverty rates were registered among families composed of two adults and three or more dependent children, and among single parent with at least one dependent child (42.7 percent and 31.6 percent respectively).

Poverty rates rose also in 2015 for the elderly population, from 17 percent in 2014 to 18.3 percent in 2015.

For people under the age of 18, the poverty risk rate was 22.4 percent, falling by 2.4 percentage points compared to 2014.

Around 42 percent of the unemployed population was at risk of poverty and 10.9 percent of the employed population were at risk, with the statistics agency registering the same figures as the previous year for both the groups.

The statistics agency also noted a "strong inequality" in income distribution, but there was a slight reduction, with the Gini index (measurement of income distribution) going from 34 percent in 2014 to 33.9 percent in 2015.

Portugal was one of the most hard-hit countries in the EU by the financial crisis and suffered several years of austerity under an international bailout.

The Portuguese economy grew 1.6 percent in the third quarter of the year, compared to the corresponding period of the previous year and 0.8 percent compared to the previous quarter, the statistics agency recently revealed. (1 euro = 1.04 U.S.dollars) Endit