The Faces of the Poor: a Sociological Review of Poverty in Contemporary Europe and Malta

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, millions of people in Europe are still struggling with poverty. This despite the fact that Europe is a relatively economically well-off region. Taking a conventional relative measure of poverty, calculated in terms of income below 60% of the national median, it is estimated that about 16% or 75 million people in the European Union can be termed poor (European Commission, 2007). This figure however masks the considerable variation noted in different EU countries with the share of the population living on a low income ranging from less than 11% in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg to around 20 or 21% in Slovakia, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Greece (European Commission, 2007; European Communities, 2007a). In Malta, the percentage of people who in 2005 fell below the poverty line is quite close to the EU average. According to the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) carried out by the National Statistics Office, the poverty rate in Malta and Gozo stood at 14.9% or 59,315 persons. The SILC established a poverty threshold of Lm2032 (€4733.29) calculated at 60% of the median equivalised disposable income. All persons whose equivalised income fell below this threshold were considered to be at risk of poverty (NSO, 2007a).