The problem of poverty and social exclusion in the European Union countries in the context of sustainable development

The article addresses the problem of the risk of poverty and social exclusion in the context of sustainable development of rural areas. The empirical materials included in the article come from the EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) partial surveys. They constitute a reference point for comparing statistics on income distribution and social integration in the European Union. One of the most important Millennium Development Goals is to eliminate poverty and counteract social marginalization. The research shows that every fourth resident of rural areas in the EU is at risk of poverty or social marginalization. The highest risk of marginalization and/or poverty is among rural residents in Bulgaria (54.8%) and Romania (50.8%), but also in Poland and Lithuania this level exceeds the EU average (by 4.5 percentage points and 9.2 percentage points, respectively). At the other extreme of exclusion are the Netherlands and the Czech Republic with a risk level of 12.8%. The factor constituting the economic security of a household, and as a result the sense of certainty, is income. Its level affects the level of objective poverty measured using the parametric method. In the EU, it is assumed that people whose income does not exceed 60% of the median income in a given country are at risk of poverty. Thus, almost every fifth rural resident in the EU is at risk of poverty. Poverty and social exclusion are multidimensional phenomena. They cause unmet needs in many areas - health care, education, housing, culture and leisure. The lack of adequate income causes a kind of feedback loop and is both a cause and a consequence of deprivation of needs, and also promotes unbalanced development of rural areas.