January 18 (SeeNews) - The level of median disposable income in Romania was the lowest in the European Union in 2021, measured at 8,703 purchasing power standards (PPS), about four times less than Luxembourg which topped the table with 32,132 PPS, the European statistical office said.
Most EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) attested to lower levels of median equivalised disposable income, or total disposable household income divided by the number of household members weighted according to age, with Bulgaria at 9,375 PPS and Greece at 9,917 PPS, Eurostat said in a data release last week.
In 2021, the average median disposable income across the EU was 18,019 PPS per inhabitant, with Western European and Nordic member states recording the highest levels.
In the review year, the EU's highest levels of inequality in terms of disposable income were noted in Bulgaria with a coefficient of 39.7%, Latvia - 35.7%, Lithuania - 35.4%, and Romania - 34.3%, with a coefficient of 100% denoting that all income is received by one person. By contrast, income was most equally distributed in Slovenia - 23%, and Slovakia - 20.9%, based on 2020 data.
According to the data set, the 20% of the EU population with the highest income received more than 30% of the total income in 2021, a share which peaked at 46.3 % in Bulgaria. Eurostat uses PPS as an artificial currency unit, where one PPS can hypothetically buy the same amount of goods and services in each country.