This yearly report describes poverty regarding income and addresses differences in employment status, access to education and health, housing conditions, and social and political participation. It also mentions the persistence of poverty, regional differences, inequality in income distribution, the impact of public policies in the mitigation of poverty, and the population's perceptions and attitudes towards the welfare state.

Additionally, this edition updates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, on the most vulnerable groups of the population, on health, education, and the labor market, also presenting a newly added section dedicated to the elderly.

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In this video - it is in Portuguese - you can watch the presentation of the report, followed by a policy debate. During this presentation, these main conclusions are highlighted:

              • In 2019, the Poverty Rate after social transfers decreased to 16,2%. In the absence of these transfers, the Poverty Rate would have been 42.4% (+26 p.p.).

              • Single-parent and large families are the ones presenting higher poverty incidence.

              • Unemployed and workers with temporary contracts face greater poverty incidence when compared to employed workers with permanent contracts.

              • On average, material deprivation decreased between 2019 and 2020.

              • Children and the elderly were at higher risk of poverty (19% and 18%, respectively) in 2019 and faced greater material deprivation in 2020.

              • In 2019, women received 0,73€ per 1€ received by men. This wage gap was higher in the population who is considered to be at risk of poverty, in which women received 0.66€ per 1€ received by men.

              • On average, education reduced gender wage inequality.

              • The share of disposable income held by the richest 25% increased 4 p.p. between 2018 and 2019, which illustrates an increase in the inequality in income distribution.

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Note: The aforementioned conclusions are still not representative of the pandemic impact, since they regard mostly data from 2019. Nonetheless, current estimates made by INE report an increase in the 2020 Poverty Rate to 18,4% (approximately 1.9 million individuals).

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Regarding the Covid-19 impacts that can be assessed, it is also concluded that:

              • Anxiety and difficulty in identifying false pieces of news decreased in 2021 relatively to 2020. People reporting insufficient income are the most affected by these two phenomena.

              • The Covid-19 imposed disruptions in school activities translated into a loss of competencies relatively to 2018 and 2019.

              • There was an increase in registration at Job Centers, and Algarve and Lisboa e Vale do Tejo were the regions where the increase was the most expressive.

              • Women with children were the ones who, on average, reduced weekly working hours the most: on average less 1.2 hours, when comparing the 1st quarter of 2021 with the homologous period in 2019.

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You can access the full report on Nova SBE’s Social Equity Initiative page.