Poverty is an enormous issue across the territory of the European Union and Europe as a whole, but just how does Croatia fare? While taxpayers and the government argue over tax breaks and the raising of the living wage, poverty in Croatia is climbing.
As Adriano Milovan/Novac writes on the 3rd of February, 2020, although this data doesn’t regard mere small numbers of people in Croatia who are working and who are still at risk of poverty, Croatia still managed to rank fairly well on the European Union’s list with this indicator.
Namely, with a 5.2 percent poverty rate back in 2018, the Republic of Croatia was among the best placed EU member states, since only those who are employed in Ireland, the Czech Republic and Finland have a lower risk of falling into poverty in the EU, with it threatening just about every 33rd employee, which is a real threat to only 3.1 percent of people who have a job. In addition, according to Eurostat, Belgium has the same at-risk-of-poverty rate as Croatia.
Eurostat’s data also show that Slovenia’s employees have a slightly higher risk of falling into poverty, where poverty is a real threat to six percent of employees. The EU average is 9.5 percent, which means that almost every 10th employee in the EU is at risk of falling into poverty. Romanians are most at risk of falling into poverty: and as many as 15.3 percent of Romanian employees face that particular threat.
Among EU member state candidates for which Eurostat has published data, the highest risk of falling into poverty lies with employees in neighbouring Serbia, where every 10th employee is faced with a real threat of poverty. This is almost twice as high as in Croatia and is at the EU average. In Northern Macedonia, poverty is a threat to 8.8 percent of employees, Eurostat figures show.
Eurostat’s analysis shows that employed men are more at risk of falling into poverty than employed women are, both in terms of poverty in Croatia and across the EU as a whole. Poverty is more of a threat to part-time employees or other similar, ”less sturdy” forms of work than to those with permanent contracts, Eurostat concludes. They also add that the risk of falling into poverty in the EU is increasing, making poverty a real threat to 8.6 per cent of European Union employees in 2008, rising to a concerning 9.5 per cent in 2018.
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