Material Deprivation in Poland and Slovakia – a Comparative Analysis

Abstract

One of the key targets of the EU’s 2020 Strategy is to substantially reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The EU seeks to reduce poverty by lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty or social exclusion by 2020. The monitoring of progress towards this target is based on the headline indicator AROPE – people at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The indicator applies to people either at risk of poverty or severely materially deprived or living in a household with a very low work intensity. This article focuses on material deprivation, one of the three components monitored to evaluate the social situation in the EU. The article deals with material deprivation and severe material deprivation in Slovak and Polish households. The two main goals of this article are to examine which factors have a significant effect on material deprivation and to determine the influence of those relevant factors on material deprivation of Slovak and Polish households. The article provides a comparative analysis of the material deprivation of Slovak and Polish households. We used microdata from EU SILC 2012 from Poland and Slovakia and association analysis including logistic regression. These statistical methods were applied using SAS Enterprise Guide.