Poverty risk rate in Belgium 2008-2022

In 2022, roughly 13.2 percent of the Belgium population was at risk of poverty, which is defined as 60 percent of the average disposable income in the country. People with an income lower than this are considered poor. Women were especially vulnerable, as the share of women living under the poverty threshold was over 0.5 percentage points higher than the share of men.

 Severe material deprivation in Belgium 

In the last decade, the share of people suffering from severe material deprivation in Belgium has decreased, but as of 2021 still 3.6 percent of the population fit the EU definition, checking four out of these nine indicators: the inability to pay bills, the inability to properly heat the house, inability to deal with unexpected expenses, inability to eat meat, fish or chicken every two days, inability to go on a week-long holiday abroad, inability to afford a car, inability to afford a washer, inability to buy a television and inability to afford a telephone connection. For example, in 2021 4.2 percent of Belgians were unable to pay their bills on time.

Nearly one quarter of Belgians cannot afford a holiday

   Although the share of Belgians unable to afford a washing machine or telephone was relatively low (1.1 and 0.2 percent respectively), some other indicators proved to be a lot more problematic. In 2021, just under 24 percent of Belgians were not able to pay unexpected expenses, and roughly the same amount of people could not afford to go on a week-long holiday either.