Europe's Middle Class Under Pressure

In the OECD area, nearly half of middle-income households were having difficulties paying their necessary household expenses every month. Among the lower-income and upper-income households this was 70.1 and 21 percent respectively, suggesting that money worries were not exclusively limited to those with lower incomes and that even among the top earners, there could still be people concerned about their personal finances.

In a country still trying to get over the financial crisis, there was hardly a middle-income household in Greece without difficulties to make ends meet. In former communist Lithuania, Hungary and Latvia the middle classes were pressured as well, with over three quarters stating they have problems paying their monthly bills. By contrast, less than ten percent of middle-income families in Norway and Sweden reported money issues.