The European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey 2021 has revealed that the material and social deprivation rate stood at 9.8%, whereas the severe material and social deprivation rate stood at 5.5%, the National Statistics Office said today.

The EU-SILC is a harmonised statistical enquiry which aims to collect comparable data on income, health and disability, employment, and material deprivation.

The NSO explained that European statistics on material deprivation are based on the perceived capacity, or otherwise, of households to afford a number of items from a set of 13 standard items.

These standard items were established at European level as the most relevant components for the measurement of material and social deprivation. From these components, two major constructs are derived from EU-SILC being the Material and Social Deprivation indicator and the Severe Material and Social Deprivation indicator.

A person living in a household is deemed to be materially and socially deprived if this person does not afford at least five out of the 13 material and social deprivation items whereas those who do not afford at least seven of these items are considered to be severely materially and socially deprived, the NSO said.

The NSO said that in 2021, the material and social deprivation rate stood at 9.8%, whereas the severe material and social deprivation rate stood at 5.5%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points in both rates when compared to 2020.

With reference to specific deprivation items, 33.1% of the surveyed population stated that their household could not afford to pay for a one-week annual holiday away from home. Furthermore, 15.7% declared that their household would not be able to settle an unexpected financial expense of €770 and over.

It also found that 7.8% do not afford to keep the home adequately warm in winter and a further 7.8% of the respondents stated that their household was in arrears on mortgage or rent payments, utility bills, hire purchase instalments or other loan payments.

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