The risk of poverty in Portugal hasn’t been so low for 16 years.
This is the best interpretation of data collected by the Pordata platform, run by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, and presented on World Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
Signs that poverty has been receding in Portugal began in 2017 when a study showed there were less impoverished people than previously.
The line at which ‘poverty’ is declared is a monthly income close to 460 euros.
Explains Jornal Económico, nationals affected to this day remain the elderly, on low pensions, and the under-18s.
The highest poverty risks in recent years were registered in 2003 and the crisis years of 2013 and 2014 – when as many as one in five nationals was found to be surviving on the ‘limits’ of poverty.
But on a European level, Portugal ranks 19th on a list of 26 member states.
In other words, our ‘good news’ is still very dim in the wider context. Only seven other countries have citizens running a greater risk of poverty. These are led by Bulgaria (32.8% risk), Romania (32.5%), Greece (31.8%), Latvia (28.4%), Lithuania (28.3%) and Spain (26.1%).
In numbers, Portugal’s ‘reduced risk’ still means that 2.2 million people live on the limits of poverty (21.6%), and that Europe in general has failed in its ambition to pull 20 million people out of poverty by 2020.
Explain reports, that declaration, made 10 years ago, has in fact only seen 8.2 million ‘rescued’ from the economic misery.
