According to a research which the UNDP conducted in Croatia last year, "one in ten inhabitants was found to be socially excluded (11.5 percent). However, in terms of self-perception, 20 percent of citizens believe they are socially excluded".
Presenting the report in Zagreb on Thursday, the UNDP permanent representative in Croatia, Yuri Afanasiev, pointed out figures showing that almost 20 percent of Croatian inhabitants felt they were in social exclusion, or that they were discriminated against or neglected.
"The living standard in Croatia, according to EUROSTAT (2006), is almost half the EU average, though it is the highest of all new member countries. Less than 5 percent of Croatia's population lives below the absolute poverty line of 4.30 USD per person per day. As Croatia furthers its economic development and gains full entry into the EU, its citizens with post-secondary education, foreign language skills, and a high degree of computer literacy will have no difficulty finding employment," reads the report.
The document warns that "older employed individuals with less education, who are unilingual and computer illiterate, are most likely to encounter problems and risk social exclusion into the future. Policy efforts that aim at correcting social exclusion must strike the right balance between social development and poverty reduction, without undermining the business and entrepreneurial climate".
The report says that groups that seem to face the greatest risk of social exclusion in Croatia are people with disabilities, who make 9.68% of the national population, long-term unemployed who make up 63 percent of all jobless people in Croatia, minority ethnic groups and institutionalized populations as institutionalization itself can cause exclusion because it involves placement away from the family, often in remote settings.
The report also points out figures showing that those above the age of 65 who do not receive pensions are in a particularly difficult position. As many as 62 percent of this group live in poverty.
Commenting on the report, President Stjepan Mesic said that it was unacceptable that every third Croatian must think how to make ends meet, that ethnic minorities are treated as second-class citizens and that retirement means to begin living in poverty.