73% of Europeans consider poverty to be a widespread problem in their country while 89% want urgent action by their government to tackle the problem. Those are the key results from a new Eurobarometer survey on attitudes to poverty and social exclusion presented by the European Commission on 27 October 2009.

The survey is being presented ahead of the 2010 European Year Against Poverty and aims to shed some light on the many facets of poverty and social exclusion in current European societies. Nowadays in the European Union, nearly 80 million citizens, or 16% of the population, live below the poverty line, and many, therefore, face serious obstacles in accessing employment, education, housing, social and financial services. According to the EU-agreed definition, people are considered at risk of poverty when they live on an income below 60% of the median household income of their own country.

The survey examined, among other things, people's awareness of the extent of poverty within the European Union, the perceived personal and societal reasons behind poverty, who is thought to be most at risk, if people feel somehow threatened by the possible prospect of poverty, how poverty may prevent people from taking full advantage of society, as well as how easy or difficult they perceive access to financial services to be. People's perception about the urgency of governmental action to combat poverty is also examined, together with the level of administration felt to be mostly responsible for it.

Key conclusions are as follows:

• EU citizens are strongly aware of the extent of poverty and social exclusion in today’s society: nearly three in four feel that poverty in their country is widespread. However, the extent to which poverty is seen as widespread differs greatly from country to country.
• People feel that poverty is a problem that needs urgent action: nine out of ten support the view that this action should come from their government. Over half of respondents hold their government primarily responsible for reducing or preventing poverty.
• People’s perception of what it means to be poor is more frequently seen as having resources that are so limited that people cannot participate fully in society, not being able to afford the basic goods one needs to live, or having to depend on charity or public subsidies.
• Over 80% of Europeans report that poverty has increased in their country in the last three years. This finding needs to be understood in the context of the current economic crisis, the full impact of which is still to be felt.
• High unemployment and insufficient wages and salaries are the most widely perceived ‘societal’ explanations for poverty, together with insufficient social benefits and pensions and the excessive cost of decent housing. Meanwhile, a lack of education, training or skills, as well as ‘inherited’ poverty and addiction are the most widely perceived ‘personal’ reasons behind poverty.
• Regarding the groups considered most at risk of poverty, over half of Europeans believe that the unemployed are most at risk of poverty, while 41% believe that the elderly are most vulnerable, and 31% see those with a low level of education, training or skills as most at risk. Other social categories considered most vulnerable by Europeans are people in precarious employment situations, people with disabilities, and those suffering from some form of long-term illness. 
• As far as the effects of poverty are concerned, close to nine out of ten Europeans believe that poverty hampers people’s chances of gaining access to decent housing, eight out of ten feel that being poor limits access to higher education or adult learning, and 74% believe that it damages their chances of finding a job. The majority of Europeans believe that access to a decent basic school education is affected, and 54% believe that the ability to maintain a network of friends and acquaintances is limited by poverty. While the majority of Europeans do not report difficulties in gaining access to financial services, the picture for the most vulnerable is very different. 
• Finally, nearly three-quarters of European citizens believe that the European Union has an important role to play in combating poverty. The EU can contribute in different ways:
• Coordinating and encouraging Member States’ efforts to combat social exclusion and poverty, and to reform their social protection systems, on the basis of shared experience; 
• Developing common EU-wide objectives and approaches that Member States implement by means of national action plans; 
• Making available EU funding for activities aiming to prevent and combat poverty and social exclusion, for example under the European Social Fund (which represents 10% of the EU's annual budget) and PROGRESS programme (which has a budget of around €100 million per year); 
• Organising regular pan-European meetings to pool ideas and share successful policy approaches, for example through the annual roundtable on poverty and meetings of people experiencing poverty.

The Eurobarometer survey is available at: 
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_321_en.pdf (1879kb)