The concepts described on these pages are words and expressions used in statistics with a specific, limited meaning. In everyday speech the word may have a different meaning. In connection with each definition you can find information about which sets of statistics use the concept.
If you are looking for statistical figures, go from the definition to the statistics page.
Low-income earners (persons at risk of poverty) are considered those whose household's disposable money income per consumption unit (so-called equivalent income) is lower than 60 per cent of the equivalent median money income of all households. The proportion of the population falling below this income limit is called the low income rate (at-risk-of-poverty-rate). The euro-denominated limit for low income varies by year. The definition is based on the recommendations of Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. There is no official national definition for low income or poverty line in Finland.
From the statistical reference year 2011 onwards, the income distribution statistics started to use the money income concept meeting international recommendations for statistics on low income earning (poverty risk). In reports published before that, a wider income concept was used, that is, households' disposable equivalent income, when income included so-called imputed rent and sales profits.
Statistics using the definition
Validity of the definition
- Valid
Source organisation
- EU
