Finland Times

Helsinki, January 31- About 13 percent of the total population in the country remained under the risk of poverty, according to the report of Statistics Finland.

The income distribution statistics released here on Wednesday said that the low income rate or the proportion of people living in low income households of all Finns, has remained at 12.9 percent since 2006.

The number has been approximately 700,000 persons annually which was 688,000 in 2011.

Low income is defined relative to the population's median income. A person whose household income per consumption unit 1) is less than 60 percent of the median income is considered living in a low income household. This income threshold was approximately EUR 13,700 per year, approximately EUR 1,140 per month, in a one person household in 2011.

The study recorded the low income based on household disposable cash income calculated per the household's consumption unit.

All wages, salaries, entrepreneurial income and property income, excluding imputed items and profits from sale of property, received by the household members, as well as current transfers to the household from the public sector or other households are considered as income.

Taxes and tax-like payments have been deducted from the income sum and this gives the disposable cash income of the household. This is divided by the household's consumption units.

Statistics Finland's income distribution statistics are based on a sample that consists of approximately 10,000 households. The same data are used to compile the European Union's Income and Living Conditions Survey, EU-SILC. The data for the statistics are collected with interviews and from administrative registers.

The consumption units are based on the so-called OECD's modified scale. One adult in the household is one consumption unit. Other persons in the household aged at least 14 each are 0.5 consumption units and children aged 0 to 13 each are 0.3 consumption units. A household with one adult member constitutes one consumption unit, while a household consisting of spouses and one child aged under 14 together has 1.8 consumption units, the report added.