Unfortunately, the statement that every fifth citizen lives on the edge of poverty is accurate.
On the official Facebook page of the SDP, a status was posted on June 4th stating: “In Croatia, the situation is even worse – every fifth citizen lives on the edge of poverty.”
The stated claim is TRUE.
According to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS), the at-risk-of-poverty rate in Croatia in 2023 was 19.3 percent. The data shows that the highest risk is among the elderly, single-person households, single parents, and residents of Pannonian Croatia. According to the NUTS regions classification, the highest at-risk-of-poverty rate was found in Pannonian Croatia at 29.4 percent. In Northern Croatia, it is 17.7, in Adriatic Croatia 17.5, and in the City of Zagreb 10.5 percent.
According to DZS data, the at-risk-of-poverty threshold for a single-person household in 2023 was 5,924 euros, and for a household with two adults and two children under 14 years old, it was 12,440 euros. By age and gender, the highest at-risk-of-poverty rate was among those aged 65 and older, at 34.8 percent. In this age group, the gender gap is the largest, with the at-risk-of-poverty rate for women at 38.8 percent and for men at 29.3 percent. The lowest at-risk-of-poverty rate was among those aged 25 to 54, at 12.6 percent. Among men in this age group, it was 12.8 percent, and among women, it was 12.5 percent.
