9.546-264/09

Wien, 16 December 2009 – Today Statistics Austria has published the latest results on income, poverty and living conditions in Austria based on EU-SILC 2008. The at-risk-of-poverty threshold in the year 2008 was 951 Euro per month for a single person household. For other household types the threshold increases by 475 Euro for each additional adult and 285 Euro for each child. In total 12.4% of the population was at risk of poverty, representing about 1.018.000 persons. Of these, approximately 492.000 persons (6% of the population) lived in manifest poverty. 5% of the population have been at persistent-risk-of-poverty between 2004 and 2007, this means their income was below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold in 2007 and in at least two out of the three precedent years.

These results are based on the annual EU-SILC survey which is the main source for indicators on social inclusion. The key elements of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion are to tackle poverty and to raise public awareness for vulnerable groups and challenges of social inclusion.

For more detailed information please refer to the German version.