The Evaluation of EU Countries Population At-Risk-of-Poverty: The Aspect of Income Inequality Changes

To begin with, comparability and change are important for the poverty assessment, so, over 10 years, chosen poverty risk relative ratios and their trends in the EU countries have allowed to look at population’s economic situation in the individual countries, at the extent of their groups and community. In those countries, substantial differences are related to changes in income inequality, which determine different poverty risk. The study allows denying assumption that poverty risk always moves in the same direction as the income inequality. Such synchronicity was established only in the case of income inequality growth. In countries, where income inequality has been relatively stable, the risk of poverty was increasing—population with the lowest income went up. In the group with declining income inequality, the risk of poverty has also decreased, but at a significantly slower pace and the largest effect was not in the poorest, but in slightly higher income strata.