Risk of poverty, social exclusion on rise

About 873,000 Finns, or 16.0 per cent of the entire household population, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2019, according to the Statistics Finland’s preliminary data.

The number of persons at risk grew by around 17,000 on the previous year. The change was primarily due to growth in the number of low-income households.

Being at risk of poverty or social exclusion means that the person is living in a low-income household, a household with low work intensity or a household that experiences severe material deprivation (see concepts).

The materialisation of one of these risks means that the person is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, but the risks can also be simultaneous. There were 669,000 persons living in low-income households, 376,000 persons with low work intensity, and 139,000 living in severe material deprivation in 2019.

Most persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion are the only members of low-income households. They numbered 425,000 persons or 7.8 per cent of the population and slightly under one-half of all persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

The second most common situation was to experience both low income and low work intensity, which affects around 182,000 persons or 3.3 per cent of the population. Mere low work intensity was the third most common situation and that concerned approximately 127,000 persons or 2.3 per cent of the population.

Women’s risk of poverty or social exclusion diminished and men’s grew in 2019. In all, 15.9 per cent of women or 438,000 persons and 16.2 per cent of men or 435,000 people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2019.

In the long term, the difference between women and men has narrowed, especially due to the contraction of gender differences in low-income families among the oldest women and men. Experiences of low work intensity were somewhat more common among men (7.6%) than women (6.3%). Men also faced more than one risk factor slightly oftener than women.

In 2020, there were slightly more households experiencing difficulties in making the ends meet than in the year before.

In all, 7.3 per cent of households had difficulties or great difficulties in making ends meet, while in the previous year, the share was 6.8 per cent.

In addition, around 72 per cent of households said that they could face unexpected expenses without outside help. Unexpected expenses refer to the sum corresponding to the monthly at-risk-of-poverty threshold for a one-person household, which in recent years has been around EUR 1,200.