More than a third of families earn 833 euros per month and cannot pay unexpected expenses.

According to Pordata, more than a third of Portuguese families earn 833 euros gross and are unable to pay unexpected expenses.

On the day that marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Pordata, the statistical database of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, collects some data from the National Statistical Institute (INE) to create a portrait of poverty levels in the country.

Thanks to this portrait, one can learn, for example, that in 2021, based on IRS returns filed annually by tax households, “more than a third of households (36%) lived on, at most, 833 euros per month. “.

“If we add the income group immediately after this, we can conclude that more than half of the declarations (53%) correspond to an income of up to 1,125 euros gross per month,” says Pordata, highlighting that 688 thousand tax aggregates were in the minimum income. IRS bracket (equivalent to 417 euros per month).

However, based on declared income, “the richest 20% of tax households earned 3.5 times more than the poorest 20% of households” and “in municipalities such as Lisbon, Porto, Oeiras and Cascais, the difference is five times greater.” “

Based on some results from the Living Conditions and Income Survey (ICOR) indicators of material and social deprivation relating to the first half of 2022, Pordata notes that at that time, 30% of households were unable to meet unexpected expenses and 6.0.1% reported delay in certain payments related to rent, installments or loans.

It could be observed that the percentage of the population stating that they cannot adequately heat their homes has increased, with Portugal being the fourth country in the European Union with the highest proportion of people aware of this inability.

On the other hand, “the proportion of the population unable to afford the equivalent of meat, fish or vegetarian food every 2 days also increased slightly (from 2.4% to 3%), as did the number of people unable to pay for a week’s holiday per year away from home (from 36.7% to 37.2%).”

The most recent INE poverty figures refer to 2021 incomes and show that at that time 1.7 million Portuguese were at risk of poverty, meaning they lived on less than €551 per month, and that 18.5% of children and young people were poor , and also demonstrated that the risk of poverty increases in families with two adults and two children.

Regarding the evolution of inflation and the purchasing power of the Portuguese, Pordata states that 2022 recorded the highest level of inflation in the last 30 years and that since February there has been a general increase in the prices of goods and services, largely due to the war in Ukraine.

“You have to go back 30 years to find the inflation rate higher than in 2022 (7.8% versus 9.6% in 1992). Since records have been set, inflation peaked in 1984 (28.5%) and since mid-1995 inflation has always been below 4.5%. In recent years, we would have to go back to 2017 to find price increases above 1.3%,” he says.

As a result, the purchasing power of the Portuguese has decreased and the €760 national minimum wage is equivalent to €678, as items in the consumer basket representing household expenses have become on average 12.2% more expensive.

Pordata also states that when it comes to housing, house prices are up 90% in 2022 compared to 2015 – versus 48% of the European Union average – while wages are up just 20%.