In 2018, 26.3% of Luxembourg households said that they are having trouble making ends meet, according to Statec.
Statec has published this year's social statistics to provide an overview of the financial difficulties of households in Luxembourg. It is able to provide these indicators for the year 2018 based on data from the EU-SILC survey (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions).
The survey showed that the number of housholds experiencing such difficulties has decreased by two points since 2017 and is almost identical to that of 2015. From those who responded, 4.5% of housholds found making ends meet to be "very difficult", 6.9% found it "difficult" and 14.9% found it "rather difficult". The first category has decreased by one point while the others remained almost unchanged compared to previous years.
The difficulties of these households mean that some are excluded from some important goods and services. For example, among households reporting difficulty making ends meet, almost half (48.6%) reported having the ability to cope with unexpected expenses. This proportion is stable compared to 2017. However, only two-thirds of these households said that they can afford to go for a week away from home.
Furthermore, in 2018, around 33% of households considered that the financial burden of their housing was high, 46.2% that it was moderately high and 20.3% that it is not at all. For four out of five households, the problem of the financial burden of housing is worrying. Indeed, this financial burden correlates with the household's ability to make ends meet. For 69.2% of households reporting difficulty making ends meet, the financial burden of housing was perceived as important. This is a significant increase over previous years.
