Educated the same as those with primary education in the EU, 55% of Albanians perceive themselves as poor

More than half of Albanians (55.3%) considered themselves subjectively poor, according to a Eurostat publication for 2022, but Albania's data is up to 2021.

In this ranking, Albanians feel the second poorest in Europe, with more than twice the EU average (24.8%). The first place is held by the Greeks, 68% of whom have declared that they feel subjectively poor.

Subjective poverty indicators are based on results from the European Union (EU) statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC), a data collection that is carried out in all EU Member States, as well as in most candidate countries. Indicators use, as a basis, information on the ability to afford living.

Of the countries in the region, the least poor are the Serbs with 44% who perceive that they are poor, yes for 2021, North Macedonia with 47.2%, Kosovo 47.3 (for 2019), Montenegro with 50.1%.

According to gender, 54.7% of Albanian men consider themselves poor, compared to 55.6% of women. By age group, the elderly are the ones who feel most poor in the country. According to Eurostat data, 58.4% of the elderly (over 65) considered themselves subjectively poor.

The percentage of children up to 18% who think the same is high, with 58.1%, from 43%, which is, for example, in Serbia. This percentage decreases to 54.5% for the 18-64 age group.

The lower the level of education, the higher the perceived poverty, as 66.8% of people with low education consider themselves poor, similar levels to countries in the region.

For those with secondary education, the figure is 50.9%.

For persons with higher education, the indicator improves significantly, a phenomenon that is found for all states, with 28.3% of them who considered themselves subjectively poor. The best in the region are the educated people of Serbia, with 22.2%.

However, compared to the European average of 9.2%, educated Albanians feel three times poorer.

Educated Albanians (28.4%) feel almost as poor as citizens of the European Union with primary education (29.5%).

Subjective poverty in Europe

According to Eurostat, one in four people in the EU considered themselves subjectively poor in 2022. This percentage was higher among women than among men and higher among the population with a low level of education compared to those with a high level of education.

In 2022, the share of the EU population that was considered subjectively poor was 24.8%. The share decreased slightly by 0.6 percentage points (pp) since 2021 and by 5.4 pp since 2018. In 2022, the share was 24.3% for men and 25.3% for women. Differences between EU member states are evident.

At the national level, the share of the population that was subjectively considered poor varied in 2022 from 5.8% to 68.4%. The lowest percentages were observed in Luxembourg (5.8%), Finland (6.2%) and the Netherlands (6.8%). The highest percentages were found in Bulgaria (40.4%) and Greece (68.4%).

In 13 EU member states, more than 1 in every 5 people lived in subjective poverty. The percentage of subjective poverty for women was higher than for men in all States

Members of the EU with the exception of Austria, Ireland and Spain. In these three countries, the values ​​were almost equal or equal for men and women.

Across three age groups – children (people under 18), working-age adults (18 to 64) and the oldest population (65 and over) – subjective poverty in the EU in 2022 was highest among children and the lowest. among working age adults.

In 9 member states (Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Poland, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria and Greece) the share with the highest value was in the elderly population. The percentage was higher among working-age adults only in Finland (7.2%) and the Netherlands (7.5%).

The segmentation of subjective poverty by education is evident. In 2022, in the EU, almost a third (29.5 %) of the population with a low level of education (ISCED levels 0-2) was considered subjectively poor. The rate was more than 3 times lower (9.2%) for the population with higher education.

On the other hand, the percentage of people with a medium level of education was 18.0%, which was twice as high compared to the population with a high level of education. Overall, the percentage increased for all three education groups between 2021 and 2022.

/Monitor