VALETTA – An estimated 20.3 percent of Malta’s population living in private households were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2021, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said in a report on Thursday.
The respective figure in 2020 was 19.9 percent.
Persons are considered to be at risk of poverty or social exclusion if they are in at least one of the following states: at risk of poverty, severely materially and socially deprived, or living in households with very low work intensity, the NSO said.
For 2021, the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, set at 60 percent of the national equivalized income, was calculated at 10,222 euros (10,737 U.S. dollars).
The NSO said that out of the population living in private households, 16.9 percent were estimated to be at risk of poverty, remaining unchanged from the previous year.
The NSO also estimated that 5.4 percent of the population were severely materially and socially deprived persons, who could not afford at least seven items out of the 13 material and social deprivation items, such as the ability to replace worn-out furniture and worn-out clothes or leisure activities undertaken regularly.
This represented an increase of 0.3 percentage points from 2020.
The share of the population with low work intensity reached 4.1 percent in 2021, a slight decline of 0.1 percentage points from the previous year, the NSO said.
