<mark>probability of being multidimensionally poor. Some EU countries have adopted an integrated approach to social services, encompassing comprehensive support to address diverse needs.</mark><sup>50</sup> How does the extension of the AROPE indicator contribute to our understanding of multidimensional poverty?

# **About half of the population in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Romania are AROPE +, mainly because**

**of the large percentage of individuals who are educationally deprived.** These countries exhibit the highest AROPE + rates, reaching 45.0, 46.2, and 53.6 percent of the population, respectively (Table 7). The proportion of individuals deprived in the education dimension is 29.2 percent in Bulgaria, 34.0 in Croatia, and 38.4 percent in Romania, representing 64.9, 73.6, and 71.7 percent of the AROPE + population, respectively. In addition, Romania has the highest rate of individuals who live in households in which the adults have unmet medical needs (14.7 percent), followed by Poland (11.7 percent) and Croatia (10.3 percent). Romania and Bulgaria have the largest proportion of individuals materially and socially deprived when incorporating the overcrowding indicator.<sup>51</sup> Poland has the lowest AROPE + rate as well as the lowest AROPE rate.<sup>52</sup>

**Table 7.** AROPE + rates and raw headcounts of AROPE + dimensions, by country <u>(2022)</u>

||**Bulgaria**|**Croatia**|**Poland**|**Romania**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Panel(A): national rates**|||||
|AROPE +|45.0|46.2|38.6|53.6|
|**Panel(B): raw headcount of each d**|**imension**||||
|AROP|22.9|18.1|13.7|21.2|
|low work intensity|6.3|4.4|2.9|3.2|
|material and social deprivation +|19.0|4.2|3.0|24.5|
|Education|29.2|34.0|22.7|38.4|
|Health|4.8|10.3|11.7|14.7|

Note: Percentage of individuals (using survey weights). AROPE + is an extension of AROPE. Material and social deprivation + extends the material and social deprivation included in the AROPE to incorporate if the person lives in an overcrowded house (that is, if the average number of people per room available to the household is greater than two). A person is educationally deprived if at least one adult in the household has only attained primary education (or less). A person is deprived in health if at least one adult in the household has unmet needs for medical examination or treatment during the last twelve months.

Source: Own estimates based on 2022 EU-SILC. We report the survey year and not the income year. AROPE definition based on EU2030 target.

**Nearly half of the individuals who are AROPE + in Bulgaria and Romania are deprived in more than one dimension.** In contrast, in Croatia and Poland, 65.6 percent and 73.8 percent of the individuals who are AROPE + are deprived in only one dimension (Table 8). However, 21.5

> 50 In Finland, integrated service centers in municipalities offer comprehensive social services like counseling, employment support, housing assistance, and healthcare. Meanwhile, Germany's federalism model emphasizes cooperation between federal and Länder governments for effective policy coordination. Both approaches aim to enhance outcomes by providing coordinated support to address diverse needs (World Bank, forthcoming).

> 51 The headcount of the material and social deprivation dimension included in AROPE + is between 0.2 and 0.3 percentage points higher than the material and social deprivation of the AROPE because only between 2.8 percent (in Croatia) and 6.1 percent (in Romania) of the population lives in an overcrowded house.

> 52 Table A3.5 shows that all dimensions of AROPE + are significantly correlated. Specifically, interrelationships between dimensions are stronger for Bulgaria and Romania, suggesting a larger degree of overlapping (that is, proportionally more individuals deprived in more than one dimension) in these countries.

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