Romania's adult at-risk-of-poverty rate significantly influenced by parental education level (Eurostat)

Romania ranks first in EU by the share of adults at risk of poverty whose parents had a low level of education (37.4 percent in 2019), almost double the 20.3 percent average recorded in 2019 across the EU, shows data released on Tuesday by EU's statistical office Eurostat, agerpres reports.

By comparison, only 9.3 percent of Czech Republic adults with low-education parents were at risk of poverty in 2019.

According to statistical data, whereas in the EU the share of people at risk of poverty whose parents had a low level of education has only seen a modest increase in the last decade from 19.8 percent in 2011 to 20.3 percent in 2019, in Romania this indicator has gone up significantly from 24.3 percent in 2011 to 37.4 percent in 2019.

Conversely, the Czech Republic and Romania are the EU countries with the lowest risk of poverty among the descendants of highly educated parents, at 2.3 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, while the EU average is 8.6 percent. By comparison, in Austria and Sweden the at-risk-of-poverty rate among people whose parents have a high level of education is significantly higher than in the EU or Romania, at 14.8 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively.