Two million Portuguese at risk of becoming poor
24/7/2010

Data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) has revealed that nearly two million Portuguese, particularly the unemployed, live at risk of falling into poverty.

Almost one fifth of the nation lives in precarious conditions, according to recent data, which was made public on Sunday this week.

Results from the ‘Enquiry into Conditions of Life and Income’ showed that, in Portugal, there are currently 1.9 million people living on less than €414 per month. This number corresponds to 17.9 percent of the resident population, but is a slight decrease on the results from a previous survey, when 18.1 percent of the respondents (or 210,000 more) individuals were living on the breadline.

Nevertheless, authorities still consider the situation to be “extremely worrying” as, according to results from the survey, there is still a huge gap between Portugal’s wealthy and the poor.

According to the statistics, income from 20 percent of the group of people “with the highest income corresponds to six times the income of 20 percent of the group with the poorest income”. When based on comparables of 10 percent, the statistics indicate the difference to be 10.3 times higher.

However, the INE concluded that without social benefits, some 41.5 percent of the population would be living on the breadline.

Edition: 1071

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