Poverty gap in Flanders is decreasing

The poverty gap in Flanders is decreasing, concludes Statistics Flanders in a new report published on Tuesday. The median income of people below the poverty threshold was 12.2 per cent below the actual poverty threshold for 2023, compared to 18.2 per cent the year before.

The poverty gap measures the difference between the income of people living in poverty and the minimum income needed to lift them above the poverty line. The higher the gap, the more extreme the poverty in a society.

The Statistics Flanders report is based on the 2023 EU-SILC survey, which means that the figures for 2023 are based on incomes earned in 2022.

It shows that 1.4 per cent of the Flemish population in the Flemish Region have an income below 40 per cent of the national median income, 2.7 per cent have an income below 50 per cent of the national median income, and 15.9 per cent of the population have an income below 70 per cent of the national median income.

Unemployed at risk

The unemployed and people born outside the EU are most at risk, but renters, single people and residents born in the EU are also more likely to live in poverty, as are single-parent families, the low-skilled, the over-65s, older couples, pensioners and the inactive.

According to Statistics Flanders, these figures remained more or less stable between 2004 and 2023. It also points out that the relative median poverty gap in the Flemish region is lower than in the Walloon region (18 per cent) and the Brussels region (14 per cent).

Figures for 2023 are not yet available for all European countries, but Belgium was among the EU27 countries with the lowest poverty gap in 2022.

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