Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
Maltese feel less poor than average Europeans
The Maltese feel a little better off than their average EU counterpart, despite living in a country with a lower GDP per capita.
According to an EU survey, carried out in Malta last September, just over half (53 per cent) of respondents feel poverty is widespread on the island. Though this may seem high, it is much lower than the results obtained in the rest of the EU where, on average, the number of those feeling that poverty is widespread reaches 73 per cent.
Malta ranks fourth among the 27 EU member states whose population feels that poverty is not widespread. The Swedes, the Danes and the Cypriots are more positive than we are.
The study also tried to find out how EU citizens are managing to cope with daily living challenges.
Asked whether their monthly household income is enough to make ends meet by the end of the month, 24 per cent of the Maltese interviewed said they could cope easily with their monthly expenses while the majority, 65 per cent, felt they could manage well. On the other hand, nine per cent of Maltese respondents said it was very difficult for them to live a decent life as their income was not enough to meet their monthly needs.
Still, on average, the EU is fairing worse than Malta because those saying they have difficulty to make ends meet at the end of the month reaches 12 per cent.
Although poverty can have a different meaning to different people, the majority of Maltese link it with the high cost of housing. Among the 27 EU populations, Malta tops the list of those who think that buying a house is becoming less affordable. The study shows that 86 per cent of Maltese respondents said that decent housing was too expensive on the island. In the EU, 67 per cent feel the same way.
The EU survey shows that EU citizens are strongly aware of poverty and social exclusion, with 73 per cent feeling that poverty in their country is widespread.
High unemployment (52 per cent) and insufficient wages (49 per cent) are the most widely perceived social explanations for poverty, together with insufficient social benefits and pensions (29 per cent) and the excessive cost of decent housing (26 per cent).
On the other hand, a lack of education or skills (37 per cent) as well as inherited poverty (25 per cent) and addiction (23 per cent) are the most widely perceived personal reasons behind poverty.
Well over half of Europeans (56 per cent) believe the unemployed are most at risk of poverty, 41 per cent think that the elderly are most vulnerable while 31 per cent cite those with a low level of education, training or skills.
Popular Stories
Update 3: Woman found dead in car,...
Updated: Woman dies in car crash
Carm Mifsud Bonnici resigns after...
Part of Dwejra 'Azure window' collapses
The end of the bar that ‘never closed’
Bundy does not know whether to...
Updated - Jason Micallef demands...
This WAS the night - Kurt makes it...
Petrol price up 6c
In Discussion
Updated - Jason Micallef demands...
Gozo tunnel could take 5-7 years to...
CABS remote controlled aircraft shot...
Carm Mifsud Bonnici resigns after...
Joseph Calleja condemns portrayal of...
Updated: Labour would give...
CABS drone shot down
Second group of migrants arrives
Adrian Vassallo in scathing...
17 Comments
Post comment
Please sign in or create your Account to post comments.
Fabian Borg
Oct 31st 2009, 21:37
Assume that this is true !! Give it a couple of years when our new multicultural society will have phased out the Maltese Nation we were used to some years back and let them take another survey hopefully including all parts of Malta. Then we will see what will happen.
Probably it will be too late as well.
GiovDeMartino
Oct 30th 2009, 17:35
We either rely on statistics ALWAYS or NEVER.
Galea. L
Oct 30th 2009, 10:08
G.Debono
Simply pushing forward the feel good factor does not alter reality one tiny bit. It is only done to deceive the people who at the end of the day, those who have been duped will realized that they have been had.
J Oatmon
Oct 30th 2009, 09:00
Poverty is often the result of 'wasting' what money there is, on drugs and drink etc.
For instance, in Australia many aborigines are so poor they complain that they cannot buy decent clothes for their kids - yet they can always find money for drink.
If you work hard and spend wisely, then you have a chance at a decent life, but if you waste money on indulging yourself and satisying your desires all the time, the money is never enough.
G.Debono
Oct 30th 2009, 08:04
Galea L
In your haste to demonise everything you always miss the succulent bits.
First of all this survey says that the Maltese FEEL less poor than the average European. Which probably means that this might not always be so, but there is a general feel good factor (on this subject) when compared to others.
Feelings are transient, therefore come an increase in the international price of crude oil and the Maltese start feeling the opposite.
The Maltese do not earn as much as your western European counterpart but in a number of cases earn as much or more than your Eastern European ones.
Taxes in Malta are high and everything is relative, however, I dont know if you've lived abroad to savour some taxes in western Euro cities. I did for a while and their not exactly nice when compared to ours.
Other countries waste a lot of money on (trivial) defence when these could be used for other SocioEconomic things. Malta has little of that, our military budget leans on the salaries rather than useless cluster bombs. ....and a whole lot of other things insomma Sur galea. Issa jkolna J.Muscat and we'll all be singing in happiness, right?
Paul Barrett
Oct 29th 2009, 17:51
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
David Copperfield
Mr Micawber's advice to David Copperfield, Chapter 12.
Galea. L
Oct 29th 2009, 17:17
Miriam Gatt
What it really means is that the vast majority are NOT able to live within their means because their wages compared with the cost of living are not enough to pay for their daily lives. Do you expect them to go out to soup kitchens or start dressing up in sack clothes and giving one shoe to one of their children and the other to their other child like old times, because that seems to be the way we are heading.
Galea. L
Oct 29th 2009, 17:13
Karl Abela
Sorry dear Karl, they are not free.
We pay for the things you mentioned through our taxes.
Every country has its particular problems but with our wages we are not making ends meet, let alone pensioners.
Maybe some things are better than other countries and some things are better in other countries, but you have to be with the people to know how they are feeling and what they are going through.
Miriam Gatt
Oct 29th 2009, 16:21
Ref:- Karl Abela so really what it amounts to is for one to live according to his or her means and be grateful for what we have in Malta comparing it with other countries. Ofcourse most tourists look good and nicely dressed when they come here on holidays, but the thing is what alot of Maltese don't realize is that when these people go back to their country, as Karl Abela says they are all or most of them are livng in chicken boxes as we call them, working day and night and as he says true restaurants and such like are all too expensive even for them, thats the reason they come here cause on their salary its much cheaper, but then unlike us they have no security or a safe country to bring their children up in . WE HAVE THANK GOD.
Karl Abela
Oct 29th 2009, 14:39
Before people like lgalea jump to conclusions, I believe that experiencing life abroad helps to judge better. I lived for several years in Germany and, with all its pros and cons, is quite representative of Europe. Whilst Europeans have high standards of living, many of them do not have what we have in Malta:
-Free healthcare (which could always be better, but its free). In Germany, health insurances cost them 25% of their salary. This includes hospital insurance, teeth insurance and optical insurance.
-Most Europeans work in the city so they cannot afford to buy their own property. So they rent, and believe me, it’s one hell of a RENT.
-Free government schools: again, they can always be better, but they are decent enough.
-Going out during the weekend is a night mare in Malta because everywhere is jam-packed. Restaurants, nightclubs, cinemas, Notte Bianca, you name it. Most cities in Europe are dead quiet by 9pm unless it’s a major city like London or Berlin.
True, Europeans have much higher wages than we do but what’s left at the end of the month is quite similar to the average Maltese citizen.
Galea. L
Oct 29th 2009, 14:34
M.Gauci
Continue burying your head in the sand Mr Gauci. Perhaps you are one of the chosen few who have no problems. But if you think that the rest of us have no problems like you and that the people are satisfied, why don't you call on your Gonzipn to call an early election? Perhaps you don't need too because it appears that it may not be in the not too distant future.
edward gauci
Oct 29th 2009, 13:12
The header of this new item jars greatly from the various comments posted on this newspaper. Why is this?
M.Gauci
Oct 29th 2009, 12:57
Of course if labour published these stats and they made the government look bad, the likes of IGALEA and CSAMMUT would be the first to say I told you so.
Beh that is why one should never swallow any kind of arguments from them people, because as CSAMMUT says, the usual lies, damned lies.
Charles Sammut
Oct 29th 2009, 12:37
The usual, lies, damned lies and statistics.
Our standard of living has always been at the bottom of the list, so it could hardly fall any further. It is all relative.
mario aquilina
Oct 29th 2009, 12:33
Keeping your head, just above water, is not exactly living, is it?
Chandeliers with just one hanging light bulb, speaks a thousand words.
It is the greedy shopkeepers and importers that make this island expensive.
Why does one have to do two jobs to make ends meet .
Get a life while you can.
G.Briffa UK
Oct 29th 2009, 11:22
We are British/Maltese and i can tell you straight the Maltese are definitly Not i repeat Not the richest nation in europe or fell less poor, why not tell us bloggers who is the poorest in europe then? i like to know. This has got to be a laugh surely, why not visit Gozo, south of Malta not where the tourists are. George.Briffa- EX-Pat.
Galea. L
Oct 29th 2009, 10:22
Who did they ask?
The Prime Minister, Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries?
Did they ask the people from the Cottonera area, the south of Malta and Gozo?
This confirms the saying that there are lies, damned lies and statistics.
To those who carried out the survey, tell it to the marines.