Around 11 percent of households in Slovakia, representing around 595,000 people, are threatened by poverty, according to a survey on incomes and living conditions in the European Union (EU SILC 2009) that was presented in Bratislava on July 1, the TASR newswire reported.
“The border of poverty is set at €283 per person per month. Compared to 2008, the level of poverty grew slightly by 0.2 percent,” said Slovak Statistics Office head Ľudmila Benkovičová at a press conference. According to EU SILC 2009, people threatened by poverty are often families with three or more children (36 percent) or individuals aged over 65 (more than a quarter). The long-term unemployed form another large group, at 48.9 percent.
“Slovakia is characterised by an increased danger of poverty in the case of children, the unemployed and households with three and more children,” said the head of the social statistics and demography section, Ľudmila Ivančíková, as quoted by TASR. In 2008 only the Czech Republic and Iceland were worse in this respect. EU SILC was carried out in April 2009 on a sample of 5,264 households and 13,821 people older than 16.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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