Just under one in ten people in Flanders, or 610,000 people, lived with an income below the poverty threshold, which oftentimes results in them being at increased risk of poverty.
The proportion of people below the poverty threshold has remained fairly stable in recent years, fluctuating between 9% and 11% of the population since 2004, official figures from Statistic Flanders. published on Wednesday, showed.
"By gender, differences in poverty risk remain limited. However, the risk of poverty in 2020 was clearly higher among older people than among the other age groups," the results read.
Within the region, the highest poverty rates were recorded in Antwerp (12%), whilst they were lower in Flemish Brabant (7%).
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Looking at the other regions, the risk of poverty is higher in Brussels, where 31% of the inhabitants were in a precarious situation when it comes to income, while in Wallonia around 18% are at risk of living in poverty.
When comparing household situations, the risk of poverty was highest among people living in single-parent households (21%), while the risk of poverty was higher than average for single-person households (18%) and older couples (15%).
Noticeably, the risk of poverty is also around 16% higher among renters than among owners (6%).
The figures are based on calculations of the total disposable income of households in the year prior to the survey, meaning the predictions of who live in poverty in 2020 were based on people's income in 2019.
According to recent figures from Statbel, the Belgian statistics office, 11% of Belgium's entire population was confronted with a situation of material and social deprivation in 2020.
