State-of-the-art review of indicators and data on poverty and social exclusion

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the reliability and validity of existing indicators used by the European Commission to monitor developments in the field of poverty and social exclusion. We assess the quality and suitability of the main data sources to provide reliable indicators at the level of various vulnerable groups across Europe and identify any obstacles to comparative analyses across countries and over time, including the experiences of the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) and of national statistical offices. Further, we evaluate the validity of the Social Scoreboard indicators from a social rights point of view, including the views of scholars and other stakeholders. We find that there are vulnerable groups for which indicators are mostly reliable such as persons with low education, while others such as estimates for persons with migrant background are more problematic. Most indicators are reliable across groups, with only few exceptions such as the severe housing deprivation rate. Furthermore, an additional breakdown by sex aggravates problems in the case of indicators which are already problematic. The results of the statistical analysis are largely reinforced by the experiences of national statistical offices, assessed via an online survey. Measures to overcome the problems posed by sample size are on the table in some countries, such as Germany and Spain. Finally, according to our other survey conducted among social policy experts, the Social Scoreboard is considered to be a valuable and feasible tool, although not devoid of limits and in need of future improvements.