Income, Wealth, and Poverty Statistics

Monitoring the income and living conditions and their "translation" into statistical series is an ongoing challenge and a highly political subject. Therefore, the statistical classification, e.g. the definition of a poverty line, varies by country and time. Inside the European Union it's defined as disposal income below 60% of the national median income, the so called "At-risk-of-poverty rate" (Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC)).

Definition

"Income in kind received by employees is measured by the value of the goods and services provided by employers to their employees in renuneration for work done." Source: OECD, Paris

Wealth includes the values of all assets of worth owned by a person or economic entity. One gauge often used is "net worth" which is the value of all assets minus the value of all liabilities.

Poverty: "An income level that is considered minimally sufficient to sustain a family in terms of food, housing, clothing, medical needs, and so on." Source: OECD, Paris

References

Algorithms to compute Social Inclusion Indicators are based on EU-SILC and adopted under the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), European Commission 2010

All graphics and tables are created with