Poor Austrians die sooner

Impoverished Austrians have a significantly lower life expectancy, according to a charity.Siegfried Meryn’s “Nein zu arm und krank” (Say No to Poverty and Sickness) initiative (www.neinzuarmundkrank.at) reports that people with a monthly income of under 1,500 Euros die around four years earlier than the Austrian average.The organisation, which says poverty and diseases can form a vicious cycle, also announced today (Mon) that 53,000 children live in substandard apartments in Austria.Statisticians announced earlier this year that around half a million Austrians live in acute poverty, while another one million of the country’s overall 8.5 million residents are under threat of becoming impoverished.Figures also show that Austria’s richest 10 per cent of residents are in possession of almost 60 per cent of the country’s overall assets.A recent survey showed that 10 per cent of Austrians claim they are unable to make ends meet with what they earn. At the same time, Austria is the fourth-richest of Europe’s 17 Eurozone countries. The term Eurozone describes the European Union (EU) member states which use the Euro as their currency.