Nearly 830,000 women in Bulgaria are at risk of poverty, of these 33 percent are older than 65 years; the comparable figures for men are 697,000 and 17 percent. More than half of Bulgarian pensioners live with monthly payments below poverty line. Bulgaria is also the EU member state in which children face the highest risk of poverty and social exclusion. Eurostat data for 2016 reveal that 43.7 percent of children live in low-income households whose earnings are based on seasonal or other types of precarious workers.

At the same time the country is the EU member state with the lowest GDP per capita in 2016, with limited expenditure on social protection and faces adverse demographic trends, as well as persistent labour market problems. Wages are catching up from a very low level and have been pushed by an increasing labour shortage. Bulgaria’s wage level is still the lowest among EU countries although it has been increasing with accelerated speed since EU accession in 2007.

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