More than half of Albanians, or 55.3%, identify themselves as subjectively poor, according to Eurostat’s 2022 report, utilizing data from Albania until 2021.
In this ranking, Albanians consider themselves the second-poorest in Europe, with over double the EU average of 24.8%. The top position goes to the Greeks, with 68% declaring themselves subjectively poor.
Subjective poverty indicators are derived from European Union statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC), a data collection effort spanning all EU member states and most candidate countries. These indicators gauge the ability to manage life.
Among regional countries, Serbs feel the least impoverished, with 44% perceiving themselves as poor (for 2021), followed by North Macedonia with 47.2%, Kosovo with 47.3% (for 2019), and Montenegro with 50.1%.
Breaking it down by gender, 54.7% of Albanian males regard themselves as poor, while 55.6% of females feel the same. In terms of age groups, seniors express the highest sense of poverty, with 58.4% (aged over 65) considering themselves subjectively poor.
Children up to 18 years old also share this sentiment, with 58.1%, compared to 43% in, for instance, Serbia. This percentage decreases to 54.5% for the age group 18-64 years.
There’s a notable correlation between lower educational levels and higher perceived poverty, with 66.8% of individuals with low education levels regarding themselves as poor, aligning with rates in other regional countries.
For those with a secondary education, the figure is 50.9%.
Remarkably, individuals with higher education levels significantly improve the indicator, with 28.3% considering themselves subjectively poor. Serbia stands out in the region, with educated individuals registering at 22.2%.
However, when compared to the European average of 9.2%, educated Albanians feel three times more impoverished.
Educated Albanians (28.4%) express a similar sense of poverty as EU citizens with primary education (29.5%).
Subjective poverty in Europe
Eurostat reveals that one in four people in the EU considered themselves subjectively poor in 2022. This percentage was higher among women than men and more prevalent among the low-educated population compared to the highly educated.
In 2022, the proportion of the EU population identifying as subjectively poor was 24.8%. This rate saw a slight decrease of 0.6 percentage points since 2021 and a more substantial drop of 5.4 percentage points since 2018. In 2022, the rate was 24.3% for men and 25.3% for women, with noticeable differences among EU member states.
At the national level, subjective poverty rates in 2022 varied from 5.8% to 68.4%. The lowest percentages were noted in Luxembourg (5.8%), Finland (6.2%), and the Netherlands (6.8%). Conversely, the highest rates were found in Bulgaria (40.4%) and Greece (68.4%).
In 13 EU member States, more than one in five people lived in subjective poverty. Subjective poverty rates for women were higher than for men in all EU member states except Austria, Ireland, and Spain, where values were almost equal.
Across three age groups – children (under 18 years old), working-age adults (18 to 64 years old), and the elderly (65 years and older) – subjective poverty in the EU in 2022 was highest among children and lowest among working-age adults.
In nine EU member states (Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Poland, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Greece), the highest proportion was among the elderly. The percentage was higher among working-age adults only in Finland (7.2%) and the Netherlands (7.5%).
There’s a clear segmentation of subjective poverty by education. In 2022, almost one-third (29.5%) of the population with low education levels (ISCED 0-2 levels) in the EU considered themselves subjectively poor. This rate was more than three times lower (9.2%) for the highly educated population.
Conversely, the percentage of individuals with a medium level of education was 18.0%, twice as high compared to the highly educated population. Overall, the percentage increased for all education groups between 2021 and 2022.
