In 2020, the percentage of households with an income below the low-income threshold has fallen further, reports the Central Bureau of Statistics. Last year this concerned 6.8 percent of households, in 2019 this was still 7.5 percent of all households in the Netherlands. The percentage has been declining since 2014.
“In 2020, the first year of the pandemic that was accompanied by a sharp economic downturn, but was supported by an extensive package of support measures, the risk of poverty continued to fall,” CBS writes.
Poverty decreased among households in general as well as among workers and underage children. There were also fewer households that have been below the poverty line for a long time (at least four years in a row).
513,000 households
In total there were 513,000 households with an income below the low-income threshold. Because there is a lot of discussion about what exactly poverty is, Statistics Netherlands does not want to say that these people all live in poverty, but that there is a risk of poverty in these households. That is why Statistics Netherlands also refers to the low-income threshold, which is popularly referred to as the poverty threshold.
The limit is adjusted annually to price developments; in 2020 that was 1,100 euros per month for a single person, 1550 for a couple, 2110 for a couple with two children and 1680 euros for a single-parent family.
According to Statistics Netherlands, single-parent families, single people up to state pension age, households with a non-Western migration background, social assistance recipients and the low-educated face a relatively high risk of poverty.
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