The Europe 2020 strategy of the European Commission directly includes social goals under the heading of ‘inclusive growth’, which means growth that increases employment rates and reduces poverty and social exclusion.

Poverty and social exclusion are concentrated in different types of area across the EU. In less developed Member States, they tend to be higher in rural areas, while in more developed ones, they are typically higher in cities. (Source: 6th Report on Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion - Chapter 2: Inclusive growth)

The Knowledge Centre for Territorial Policies will contribute to the analysis of social issues looking at their territorial aspects, in relation to regional disparities across Europe and in particular to topics related to education, poverty and quality of life in European cities as contribution to the achievement of the EU 2020 targets, in collaboration with the Competence Centre on Composite Indicators and Scoreboard.

Human Poverty

In 2012, 24.8 % of the European Union population was estimated to be at risk of poverty or social exclusion. However, these numbers can change considerably when poverty is analysed between countries, age groups and genders, and particularly when the subnational dimension is taken into account. Local differences in poverty are essential to adequately targeting policies, alleviating the causes and mitigating the consequences of poverty. The Regional Human Poverty Index (RHPI) has been jointly developed by DG REGIO and DG JRC to measure poverty in the European Union at the regional (NUTS2) level. The RHPI comprises four dimensions of poverty: social exclusion, knowledge, a decent standard of living, and a long and healthy life. The RHPI not only provides information about the absolute magnitude of poverty experienced in a given country, but it also gives an indication of the variability of poverty levels within a country with respect to its NUTS2 regions.

The RHPI has been computed for all NUTS2 regions in all EU countries. The results show that the scale of poverty differs considerably within the EU countries. Sweden shows the lowest levels of poverty (RHPI=16.6, expressed by the lowest RHPI score), followed by Austria, Finland, and the Netherlands, all with RHPI scores below 20. Conversely, Lithuania, Croatia, Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria perform worst, with RHPI scores exceeding 40. Even larger dissimilarities are observed among regions, with RHPI scores ranging between 9.23 for Prague and more than 65 for Bulgarian Yugoiztochen (Southeast) and Severozapaden (Northwest) regions.

Substantial differences in levels of poverty among regions within a country are present in all of the EU member states. In general, large countries with many NUTS2 regions display high dissimilarities, with differences in RHPI scores between the lowest and highest scoring regions amounting to more than 40 points in Spain and France and slightly below 40 points in Italy. It must be noted, however, that in smaller countries, differences in terms of poverty are also present, e.g. Bulgaria and Romania show differences of 40 points between the best and the worst scoring NUTS2. The results also show that, in general, in NUTS2 regions comprising a capital, the poverty level is lower than the country average. The only exceptions are Vienna, Brussels, and Berlin, where poverty measured by the RHPI is higher than the country average. Such results may be related to the issue of immigration. It is known that well-developed countries, especially those with open labour markets and relatively healthy economies, are attractive for immigrants, who most often settle in large cities in search for job opportunities and better quality of life. Nevertheless, immigrants are often poorer and comprise small and closed local communities, bringing about an increase in social and material inequality. The above findings indicate that poverty-related country rankings may be misleading because they might overlook the existence of considerable stratification of poverty within a country.

For further details, see the following publication:

Regional Human Poverty Index: poverty in the regions of the European Union, JRC Science and Policy Reports, European Commission, Joint Research Centre.