MATERIAL WELL-BEING

Material well-being measures the material standard of people, which is covered by factors divided into the following subareas: income of the population, property of the population and economic security, poverty and social exclusion, consumption, work and employment, and housing. The selected headline indicators generally have a positive impact on the well-being when their value grows in the subareas of income of the population, property of the population and economic security, and work and employment, and a negative impact when their value grows in the subareas of poverty and social exclusion, and housing.

Table: Changes in the well-being in Slovenia and Slovenia's position compared to the EU, shown with headline indicators by subareas, 2008−2013

SUBAREA, HEADLINE INDICATOR	SLOVENIA	SLOVENIA vs. EU
Income of the population: Gross adjusted disposable income of households and NPISH per capita, in PPS	-	-
Property of the population and economic security: Household financial assets per capita, in EUR	+	-*
Poverty and social exclusion: At-risk-of-poverty rate, in %	-	-**
Consumption: Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISH per capita, national concept, in PPS	o	-
Work and employment: Employment rate for the population aged 20−64 years, in %	-	-
Housing: Housing deprivation rate, in %	+	+**

Source of data: The calculation is performed on data in the database (unstandardized data).
Note: * comparison 2009−2013, ** comparison 2010−2013.
Legend: improvement is marked green with the + sign, deterioration is marked red with the - sign, stagnation is marked with the 0 sign.

Due to the impact of the economic crisis, material well-being of people in Slovenia has been declining since 2008. The greatest drop was recorded in 2012 and 2013 as a result of accumulated annual decrease in the labour force following the decline in economic activity, and a decrease in earnings and other income of the population. Compared to 2008, the headline and supplementary indicators for 2013 show a decline in well-being as regards employment and income and a rise in poverty and social exclusion. The improvement of well-being as regards property of the population and economic security comes from the nominal growth of the indicator but considering the fact that consumer price indices have also been growing well-being actually declined. Consumption was slowly growing in the 2008–2012 period, but the drop in 2013 returned it to the 2008 level. As regards housing, housing deprivation declined. Improvement of the employment indicator in 2014 and the economic recovery can indicate gradual improvement of material well-being in the coming years.

Compared to the EU average, material well-being of people in Slovenia deteriorated significantly between 2008 and 2013. In most of the headline and supplementary indicators it was growing until 2008. Compared to the EU, Slovenia already had worse results as regards the headline indicators of property of the population and economic security, income of the population, consumption, and housing. On the other hand, the situation was better as regards work and employment, where Slovenia exceeded the EU average, and poverty and social exclusion, which were much lower than in the EU overall. The economic crisis, which was deeper in Slovenia and lasted longer, had a more negative impact on the material well-being of people in Slovenia than in the EU overall, particularly in 2012 and 2013. While in most of the EU Member States the economy had already recovered, in Slovenia after modest growth in 2011 it dropped significantly the next year; all the time unemployment in Slovenia was increasing more rapidly than the EU average. Such trends had a negative impact on material well-being of people in Slovenia in all subareas compared to average well-being in EU Member States. The only exception is housing deprivation, where the gap between Slovenia and the EU was narrowing, so that in 2013 the housing deprivation rate in Slovenia was below the EU average.