population in Romania and 7.7 percent in Croatia. However, replacing worn-out clothes with new ones imposes greater difficulties for individuals in Bulgaria (26.1 percent) and Croatia (5.4 percent), whereas not having regular leisure activities is a more common deprivation in Poland (9.1 percent) and Romania (32.2 percent), and not being able to have two pairs of properly fitting shoes in Bulgaria (32.7 percent).

Which households and individuals are more at risk of multidimensional poverty?

# **What kind of personal and household characteristics make individuals particularly susceptible**

**to multidimensional poverty?** Previous EU evidence shows that various factors contribute to the risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) among different groups, including unemployment, single parenthood, old-age poverty, being a young person, educational attainment, disability, gender, ethnicity, or a combination of these elements (Duffy, 2020; Vaalavuo, 2015).

**Individuals living in some vulnerable households (households receiving social aid, those with an unemployed member, single-elderly households, female-headed and households with three or more children under 18) are more prone to multidimensional poverty.** Table 4 highlights distinct patterns regarding the incidence of multidimensional poverty across different household types, with notable variations observed among countries **.** In addition to households receiving social aid, those with an unemployed member, single-elderly households, households headed by females, and households with three or more children under 18 years old, singleelderly individuals are particularly vulnerable across all four countries. However, there are heterogeneities across countries with respect to which types of households tend to have larger AROPE rates compared to the national rate. In Romania and Bulgaria, for example, individuals living in large families (comprising five or more members)<sup>44</sup> have a significantly higher likelihood of experiencing multidimensional poverty. Conversely, in Croatia, households with a pensioner are notably more vulnerable. Though Roma are presumably one of the most vulnerable groups in these countries, unfortunately, it is not possible to identify them and measure their deprivations, as the EU-SILC survey does not contain ethnicity identifiers.

**Table 4.** AROPE rates for individuals living in vulnerable households (%) by country (2022)

|**vulnerable households**|**Bulgaria**|**Croatia**|**Poland**|**Romania**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|household with unemployed|65.7|36.5|39.0|75.7|
|single-elderly household|67.7|57.9|35.2|51.0|
|female-headed household|34.7|22.9|17.1|38.2|
|household with 3 or more children|69.1|27.8|22.2|68.9|
|household with 5 or more members|43.5|17.7|16.7|47.9|
|household with disability recipient|30.8|18.4|16.7|38.9|
|household with pensioner|35.1|25.6|16.0|33.0|
|household with social aid|69.1|66.5|53.5|-|

> 44 The type of households composed by 3 or more children and by 5 or more members capture different populations, given that only a portion of the families with 5 or more members have 3 or more children – this proportion varies between 26% (Poland) and 38% (Croatia).

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