1 in 5 Greeks live below poverty line

One in five Greeks, or 20.1 percent of the population were living below the poverty line in 2010, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Greek Statistical Authority (ELSTAT). The annual report of ELSTAT showed that more than 850,000 households with over 2.2 million people faced poverty already, while more than three million Greeks, or one quarter of the population live in fear of poverty or social exclusion. In Greece, the poverty threshold for one person stands at 7,178 euros (9,361 U.S. dollars) of annual income, while for a family with two adults and two children under 14 years old stands at 15, 073 euros (19,658 dollars). The average income per capita in Greece at the moment is posted at 13,973 euros (18,173 U.S. dollars) and the average annual income for households at 24,224 euros (31,505 U.S. dollars). With the unemployment reaching its highest rates in decades, dramatic cuts on salaries and pensions and repeated tax hikes as part of efforts to overcome the debt crisis, local analysts doubt whether Greek households could stand the burden of more austerity measures needed for the bailout plan. The most vulnerable groups of the population that are threatened by poverty, according to the ELSTAT survey, are unemployed women, single parents with one child and households with an adult over 65 years old.