(29 March 2013) – According to Eurostat, living standards fell in 15 Member States in 2010 compared with a year earlier, after adjusting for inflation.
The sharpest drop in real terms occurred in Greece, where the median equivalised disposable income fell by 12.3%. It fell by 6.6% in Bulgaria, 6.1% in Latvia, 5.8% in Spain, 4.8% in Estonia and 4.4% in Portugal. A sharp decrease of 9.7% was also registered in Iceland.
Median income stagnated or increased in real terms by less than 1% in Belgium, Denmark,Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden, while it increased by more than 1% in Malta (+2.6%), Poland (+2.5%), Slovakia (+2.4%) and Austria (+1.7%).
When looking at households’ material conditions, in 2011 around 10% of the EU population reported that they could not afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every second day. This represents an increase of 1% compared with 2010.