Poles are among the most materially deprived in the EU, according to a Eurostat report on living conditions. The research, based on 2008 data, found that 32 percent of Poles suffer from material deprivation, compared with an EU27 average of 17 percent.

Bulgaria (51 percent), Romania (50 percent) and Hungary (35 percent) had the highest levels, while Luxembourg was home to the lowest (four percent).

In Poland, 63 percent of the population could not afford a week’s holiday away from home each year, 20 percent couldn’t afford to adequately heat their homes and 17 percent cannot afford a car.

Eurostat used two complementary measures to evaluate living standards throughout the EU. The first, the material deprivation rate, uses absolute criteria, while the second, the poverty threshold, reflects national median incomes in individual member states. As a result, Eurostat’s at-risk-of poverty rate varies enormously between member states: Poland’s poverty threshold is the third lowest in the EU.

The research found that 17 percent of Poles were at risk of poverty in 2008, which was the same as the rate recorded for the EU27 population as a whole.