Eurostat ranked Albania as the country with the highest percentage of the population in Europe that is at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

Eurostat recently published the progress that the countries of Europe have made in the global objectives of sustainable development, which resulted in over 46 percent of the population of Albania being at risk of poverty and social exclusion in 2020 (the data for Albania are from the year 2019).

As can be seen from the attached graph, this is the highest level in Europe and with a clear difference from other countries in the Region, such as Macedonia and Montenegro, which have high levels of population at risk of poverty.

A household's income is a key determinant of its standard of living, but other aspects may prevent people in some countries from fully participating in social activities, such as

obstacles to be included in labor markets or material deprivation.

To reflect these different dimensions of poverty or social exclusion, the broad indicator "At risk of poverty or social exclusion" measures the number of people affected by at least one of the following three forms of poverty or social exclusion:

– Income poverty;

-Severe material poverty and social deprivation;

- Very low work intensity

Data for the three components are derived from EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC).

For the three components together, Albania has been assessed with almost half of the population at risk of poverty.

According to internal measurements by INSTAT, the limit of the risk of being poor for a person in 2020 is estimated at 186,242 ALL, compared to 170,785 ALL in 2019 and 160,742 ALL in 2018. In 2020, there are estimated 621,504 individuals living below the risk of being poor, compared to 659,138 estimated individuals in 2019.

The risk of being poor or socially excluded in 2020 according to INSTAT was 43.4 percent, compared to 46.2 percent estimated in 2019.

The deepening rate of material deprivation that shows the percentage of individuals living in households that do not afford at least 4 of the 9 categories of material deprivation was estimated at 34.7 percent in 2020, against 37.1 percent estimated in 2019, marking a decrease of 2.4 percentage points.

/Monitor/