CYPRUS: More than a quarter at risk of poverty in 2016

Some 230,000 people in Cyprus were at risk of poverty in 2016, representing 27.7% of the population, three years after the country’s near bankruptcy, financial meltdown and record unemployment.

---

According to Eurostat, this figure is up 23.3% from the 180,000 who were near the poverty line in 2008, a year of relative prosperity.

The European statistical office said that in 2016, the annual national median equivalised disposable income in Cyprus (after social transfers) decreased to EUR 14,020, from 16,024 in 2008.

Thus, the at-risk-of-poverty threshold moved down from 9,614 euros for single adult families in 2008 to 8,412 euros in 2016 and from 20,190 eurod in 2008 for families with two adults and two children younger than 14 years, down to 17,665 euros in 2016.

Eurostat said that people at-risk-of-poverty after social transfers increased to 16.1% in 2016 (from 15.9% in 2008) and persons severely materially deprived increased to 13.6% (from 9.1% in 2008). Persons aged up to 59 years living in households with very low work intensity more than doubled to 10.6% in 2016 (from 4.5% in 2008).

According to Eurostat, the risk-of-poverty threshold is set at 60% of the national median equivalised disposable income (after social transfers).

Across the EU, the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate has grown from 2008 in ten member states, with the highest increases in Greece (from 28.1% in 2008 to 35.6% in 2016, or +7.5 percentage points), Cyprus (+4.4 pp), Spain (+4.1 pp) and Sweden (+3.4 pp). In contrast, the largest decrease was in Poland (from 30.5% to 21.9%, or -8.6 pp), followed by Latvia (-5.7 pp) and Romania (-5.4 pp). At EU level, the proportion of the total population being at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2016 (23.4%) decreased by 0.3 percentage points from 2008.