THE EU's statistical office, Eurostat, has published data indicating that Slovaks are the most susceptible to poverty out of all of the 10 new EU members.
According to Eurostat, 21 percent of people in Slovakia live under the poverty line, while in the Czech republic the number is only 8 percent. The EU average is 15 percent, the SME daily wrote.
Eurostat set the poverty line at three-fifths of a country's average monthly wage. In Slovakia this is Sk8,619 (€215). However, the nation's minimum wage set by law is only Sk6,080 (€152).
Statisticians warned that the figures may be misleading, as the wage level differs and the poverty risk also depends on the household.
For instance, if one-member households were included in the study, and if the purchasing power of a country's inhabitants were also taken into consideration, then the biggest risk of poverty susceptibility would belong to Cyprus, followed by Slovenia, Malta, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, wrote SME.
