About 896,000 people are at the risk of poverty or social exclusion in Finland since 2015, which is 16.6 per cent of the total population of the country, according to the Statistics Finland.

The ratio of the poverty, however, decreased slightly from the previous year. The share of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion has varied in Finland between 16 and 17.9 per cent in 2005 to 2015.

A majority of the share of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Finland is explained with low income earners: on average, three out of four persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion are low income earners.

The statistics said that a total of 119 million EU citizens are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

All in all, 23.7 per cent of the citizens of the European Union’s 28 member states were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2014.

In Finland, it was 16.8 per cent of the household population or around 904,000 persons.

The risk of poverty or social exclusion in Europe was highest in Macedonia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, while it was lowest in Iceland.

Finland’s share is the fifth lowest among the EU countries. People at risk of poverty or social exclusion include low income earners, those who are severely materially deprived or living in a household with low work intensity.

In a majority of countries, low income earners are most common. All in all, 17.3 per cent of the population in the EU Member States belonged to low income households in 2014.

The so-called AROPE indicator (At Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion) that measures the risk of poverty or social exclusion is part of the monitoring of the objective of the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Persons are classified as being at-risk-of-poverty when they live in a household, whose disposable monetary income per consumption unit is below 60 per cent of the national median income. Persons living in a household with low work intensity are all persons aged under 60, whose household's work input is below 20 per cent of the household's potential work input in the survey year.

Potential work input refers to the combined theoretical working months of the household members aged between 18 and 59 (excl. non-independent young people aged between 18 and 24) per year. Persons, whose household suffers deprivation measured by at least four indicators out of nine are considered severely materially deprived. The indicators are experiencing payment difficulties, difficulty coping with unexpected financial expenses or that the household cannot afford a telephone, washing machine, television, car, protein-rich meal every other day, one week's holiday per year outside the home or keep their home warm enough.