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Poor population in Denmark grew by 150,000 between 2002 and 2009
A new study reveals an increasing gap between rich and poor PHOTO/Colourbox
The gap between rich and poor in Denmark is increasing and the current government’s policies are only making the situation worse, a social justice think-tank revealed today.
The study, conducted by the Economic Council of Labour Movement, revealed that between 2002 and 2009 the middle class shrank by almost three percentage points to 28.6 percent of the population, or 150,000 people, when corrected for overall population growth.
Before being collected for population growth, the number of people in the middle class fell by 110,000.
In the same period 108,000 more people were classified as poor – an increase in poverty only matched by Latvia – while an additional 18,000 people were reclassified as rich.
The think-tank, which has historical ties to the Social Democrats, points to current administration’s economic redistribution policies as being to blame due to the broad reduction in social benefits.
And, according to the study, the inequality is set to grow after a series of tax cuts last year that favoured the rich.
Denmark’s growing poor population has meant that it has dropped from having Europe’s lowest poverty rate in 2001, to number eleven in 2009, according to the European Commission’s statistics agency, Eurostat.
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