The Latvian average pension in 2008 was 140 lats (€197) according to the country's department of statistics.

RIGA — The elderly in Latvia have the EU’s highest risk of poverty with 51 percent living close to, or below, the poverty line, a new Eurostat study has shown.

The statistics on poverty risk come from 2008, meaning that they were recorded before the crisis had taken full effect in the country. The Latvian average pension in 2008 was 140 lats (€197) according to the country’s department of statistics.

In the study Estonia and Lithuania fared better with 39 and 29 percent of pensioners at risk respectively. Hungarian pensioners lived best in the bloc in 2008 with just 4 percent susceptible to poverty.

Latvia also scored worst in the study overall with 26 percent of the entire population susceptible to poverty — far above the EU average of 17 percent, which has been stable since 2005.

Out of the Baltic states, Lithuanians found it hardest in 2008 to take a one week holiday away from their home with 60 percent forced to spend their time off in their locale.

Estonians fared seventh best in the EU for material deprivation, meaning that they did not have to go without basic things such as heating, meat and fish and a family car. Only 12 percent of Estonians could not meet basic requirements during the year.

The annual national at-risk-of poverty threshold is set at 60 percent of the national median income per equivalent adult. The median income separates the total population into two equal parts.

The income per equivalent adult is calculated by dividing the total household income by its size determined after applying the following weights: 1.0 to the first adult, 0.5 to other household members aged 14 or over and 0.3 to each household member aged less than 14 years old.