New definition suggests 3.1% of Dutch live below poverty line

Three Dutch statistics agencies have drawn up a new definition of poverty which suggests 3.1% of the population, or 540,000 people were living below the poverty line last year. This is far fewer than in the previous definitions used by statistics agency CBS, the government’s think-tank SCP and family spending institute Nibud. The new definition looks at actual costs rather than averages and takes family assets, such as savings into account. “We needed a common standard,” said SCP director Karen...