Poverty in rural areas

A person at risk of poverty or social exclusion is a member of a low-income household or a household that has a minor work input during a year or that is severely materially deprived. A person defined to be disadvantaged by at least one of the three indicators is considered to be at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

In Finland, the proportion of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion has varied between 14 and 17 per cent over the last five years, according to national averages. In 2023, the risk was 16.9 per cent and 15.9 per cent in 2022. The share was the lowest (8.8 per cent) in rural areas close to urban areas, while it was 16.8 per cent in urban areas in 2023. The poverty risk is the highest in thinly populated rural areas where it was 19.7 per cent.

According to the Europe 2020 strategy, the number of people living at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU should decrease from 120 million in 2008 to 100 million by 2020. The financial crisis has made this goal less feasible and it was not achieved. In March 2021, the Commission set a new headline target in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan: to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million by 2030.

The AROPE (At Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion) indicator is part of the monitoring of the EU 2030 -strategy. A person is at risk of poverty or social exclusion if at least one of the following factors is realised in their household: low income, underemployment or severe material deprivation. The statistical office of the European Union, Eurostat, renewed the definitions of underemployment and severe material and social deprivation for the components of the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion indicator in 2021. Data according to the new definition will be available for Finland from 2018 onwards.

Low-income people are those living in a household with a disposable monetary income per consumption unit below 60% of the national median income. Underemployed persons are all persons whose household labour input during the survey year is less than 20% of the household's potential labour input. Potential labour input refers to the total theoretical working hours per year of persons aged 18-64 in the household (excluding students aged 18-24, persons who have declared themselves mainly as pensioners, persons receiving pension income and persons aged 60 and over who are not working at all and whose main source of household income is pensions).  The indicator is not constructed at all for households consisting only of minor children, students under 25 or persons aged 65 and over.

Persons experiencing severe material and social deprivation are those whose household experiences a lack of at least seven out of thirteen basic needs. At the household level, basic needs deprivations include experiencing payment difficulties, difficulty in coping with unexpected expenses, not being able to afford a car, a protein-rich meal every other day, a week's holiday a year outside the home, keeping the home warm enough, or buying new furniture to replace broken ones. At the individual level, basic needs are defined as not having access to the internet when needed, being able to afford to buy some new clothes to replace second-hand ones, having two pairs of shoes that fit, or being able to afford to spend a small amount of money on personal expenses each week, having a regular hobby outside the home, meeting relatives or friends for coffee or food at least once a month. Read more about the concept of risk of poverty or social exclusion.  

This information is based on sample-based EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC). Statistics Finland calculates the poverty rate.

This indicator serves to evaluate the impact of actions taken under the Rural Development Programme on the employment rate, vitality and the development of service availability in rural areas compared with overall development in society.

This indicator is one of the CAP impact indicators.

The indicator will next be updated in spring 2026.