Definition: At-risk-of poverty rate

Category: Social statistics

The at-risk-of poverty rate is measured as the share of persons with an equivalised disposable income below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. The threshold is set at 60% of the national median equivalised disposable income. 

Equivalised income is defined as the household's total income divided by its "equivalent size", to take account of the size and composition of the household, and is attributed to each household member (the total household income is divided by its equivalent size using the so-called “modified OECD” equivalence scale. This scale gives a weight of 1.0 to the first adult, 0.5 to any other household member aged 14 and over and 0.3 to each child.). http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/coded_files/SIF_SOCIAL_COND_05-2005_EN.pdf