Around 100 million Europeans live on less than 8000 euro per year

In 2004 around 100 million Europeans (22% of the total population) had less than 60% of the EU median income of around 8000 euro per year for a single person or 22 euro a day, according to the Social Situation Report 2007 report issued Thursday by the European Commission.
According to the Report, these amounts are adjusted for purchasing power and household size, so the actual amounts would differ from one country to another and would also depend on household composition. Some 23.5 million had to get by on less than 10 euro a day.
As noted, 60%, 50% and 40% of the EU median income correspond to an annual disposable income of 8040, 6700 and 5360 euro respectively for a single person, or 22 euro, 18 euro and just under 15 euro a day.
The concentration of people with low incomes relative to the EU median is highest in the poorer new Member States, but a large proportion of the low-income population can be found in the richer EU-15 countries, which comprise the largest Member States. Almost half (just under 48%) of people with income below 60% of the EU median live in the EU-15, some 11% of them in Spain, another 9% in Italy and just under 7% in Germany. At the same time, 29% live in Poland, the most populous of the new Member States.
The Report shows that income in EU Member States is more evenly distributed than in the US. This is true both within Member States and across the EU as a whole, despite the large differences in GDP per head across the EU Member States.
Taking the population of EU-25 as a whole, the measurement of inequality, the 'Gini coefficient', can be estimated for the EU-25 at around 32.7 compared to an estimate of 35.7 for the US. The results also show that only Portugal surpasses the US level (41), while Poland, Latvia and Lithuania (at 36) have similar levels of inequality to the US.