2023-11-07 23:07:33
637,000 people in the Netherlands lived below the poverty line last year, which amounts to 3.8 percent of the population. Although that is a lot of people, it is still the lowest level since statistics agency CBS started measuring in 1977.
The fact that the number is relatively small is due to the income support from the government. This concerns, for example, the energy surcharge of 1,300 euros for people with a low income and the 380 euro discount on the energy bill at the end of the year.
Without these measures, 5.9 percent of the population would have lived in poverty last year. That amounts to almost a million people.
Statistics Netherlands does not speak of poverty, but of ‘risk of poverty’. People run this risk if they belong to a household with an income below the poverty line. Last year, the limit for singles was 1,200 euros net per month. For couples without children the amount was 1,690 euros.
The limit was slightly higher for households with children. A single parent with two minor children lives below the poverty line with an income that is less than 1,830 euros net per month. For a couple with two young children this is 2,300 euros.
Last year, 5.2 percent of children lived in poverty. That percentage was also historically low, although it still amounts to 165,000 children.
Incomes are low in four major cities
There is a lot of poverty in the four major cities, among others. More than 24 percent of poor households live there, while only 13 percent of the total number of Dutch people live in a large city. There is a relatively high level of poverty, especially in Rotterdam and The Hague.
Other negative outliers are the provinces of Limburg and Groningen and the cities of Schiedam, Enschede and Nijmegen. The risk of poverty is smallest in Rozendaal, Gelderland.
Origin plays a major role in children
Poverty was still very high among children who were not born in the Netherlands last year. Nearly one in five of them lived below the poverty line.
Children who were born in the Netherlands but have at least one parent who was not born in the Netherlands are in slightly less bad shape. Yet 10.8 percent of them still lived in poverty. If we look at children who were born here and also have two parents who were born in the Netherlands, the percentage drops to 2.5.
Children who have fled themselves or whose parents are refugees are often not well off either. Poverty is high among people from countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq. The problems are greatest among the Syrian children in our country: more than 45 percent of them live in poverty.
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