Evolution of the socio-economic context in europe 2014-2019

• Author: Cambridge Econometrics, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission), Eurocentre, ICF
• Pages: 46-47

Study supporting the evaluation of promoting social inclusion, combating poverty and any

discrimination by the European Social Fund (Thematic Objective 09)

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3. EVOLUTION OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONTEXT IN EUROPE 2014-2019

This section presents key statistics that illu strate the socio-economic context in Europe

during the evaluation period. For more information, please refer to Ann ex 3.

The EU general ly saw an improvement in living standards over the 2014-2020 period.

This improvement is considered to be attributed in part to increases in real median

income and household incomes, as well as improvements in economic acti vity and the

labour market. The gross disposable household income in creased in real terms since

2012-2013 across nearly all Member States, although in some this has not yet returned

to pre-crisis levels (notably some southern Member States).

Despite t hese positive developments, as well as the Europe 2020 target of lifting 20

million people out of poverty, over one fifth of the EU populati on remain s at risk of

poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) (see Figure 1). The Europe 2020 target was set

before the 2008 econ omic and financial crisis, which had a detrimental impact on the

EU’s ability to reach this targetй

Figure 1. Proportion of the EU population at risk of poverty and social exclusion

(2014-2018)

Source: Eurostat, People at risk of poverty or social e xclusion by age and sex [ilc_peps01],

extracted on 18 December 2019. Notes: The line is the EU28 average; the light blue area

represents the variation around the average

The proportion of people suffering from m aterial and social deprivation decli ned

between 2014 and 2018 from 19.3% to 12.8% in the EU-28. However, certain

groups (people with low education, th e inactive, children, women, people living in

rural areas and people with disabilities) have s een little improvement in relation to

this indicator.

The proportion of people in the EU-28 experi encing severe housing deprivation

slightly declined from 5% to 4% between 2014 and 2018. Those who we re