Poverty

Internationally, several poverty measures have been established (by EU-specifications for the Europe 2030-Strategy): (1) Persons are considered to be at risk of poverty if they have a relatively low household income (net household income below 60 % of median income). This relative poverty measure does not show how well the household can cope with that income. (2) Severely materially and socially deprived refers to those who cannot afford at least seven out of 13 EU-defined items (deprivation, absolute poverty measure). (3) A household with low work intensity is using less than 20 % of its work-time potential. (4) Risk of poverty or social exclusion comprises those persons for who at least one of the above three indicators applies. Here, both absolute and relative aspects are integrated; no assessment can be made of the share of households that can cope only badly or not at all with their income.

Statistics Austria collects these measures using administrative and questionnaire data in the yearly EU-SILC surveys (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions).

S: STATISTICS AUSTRIA, EU-SILC 2018-2024. Compiled on 29 April 2025. – For definitions on the indicators see 'Tabellenband EU-SILC 2024'. Different reference periods: risk of poverty as well as household work intensity refer to the previous calendar year, deprivation refers to time of interview (current or the 12 months preceding the interview). – 1) Only persons aged 0 to 64 years (excluding pension recipients, people who are retired or students).

S: STATISTICS AUSTRIA, EU-SILC 2024. Compiled on 29 April 2025. – For definitions on the indicators see 'Tabellenband EU-SILC 2024'. Different reference periods: risk of poverty as well as household work intensity refer to the previous calendar year, deprivation refers to time of interview (current or the 12 months preceding the interview). – 1) Only persons aged 0 to 64 years (excluding pension recipients, people who are retired or students). – Households with pension: more than 50 % of the household income come from pensions. – *) Not applicable for the indicator 'households with very low work intensity'. **) Small sample sizes for the indicator 'severe material and social deprivation' (less than 20 cases per cell).

S: STATISTICS AUSTRIA, EU-SILC 2024. Compiled on 29 April 2025. – For definitions on the indicators see 'Tabellenband EU-SILC 2024'. Different reference periods: risk of poverty as well as household work intensity refer to the previous calendar year, deprivation refers to time of interview (current or the 12 months preceding the interview). – 1) Only persons aged 0 to 64 years (excluding pension recipients, people who are retired or students). – *) Not applicable for the indicator 'households with very low work intensity'. **) Small sample sizes for the indicator 'severe material and social deprivation' (less than 20 cases per cell).

Links

Date		Title	PDF download
2025-04-29	file	In 2024, 3.7% of people in Austria did not reach the minimum standard of living	129.3 KB
2024-04-25	file	336 000 people could not afford expenses of daily life in 2023	108.6 KB
2024-03-18	file	Energy poverty 2022: Heating according to 3.2% of households not affordable	82.6 KB
2023-04-20	file	2.3% of the population were severly materially and socially deprived in 2022	62.2 KB
2022-11-16	file	Energy poverty 2021: 2 % cannot afford heating costs	84.6 KB
2022-07-05	file	High income dynamics in the 1st quarter 2022	190.0 KB

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