POVERTY AS A HETEROGENEITY FACTOR IN EU COUNTRIES

Measuring poverty is of utmost importance for any economy in order to look at the extent and causes of the vulnerability of the population, but also to formulate social and economic policy measures and measure their effects. The multidimensionality of poverty makes it difficult to quantify and measure it. The subject of research is the components of the AROPE (At risk of poverty and social exclusion) indicator in the countries of the European Union (EU). Using the cluster analysis, the EU countries were grouped into homogeneous units, after which the significance of the difference in the average values of the analyzed indicators was tested. Based on the obtained results, the hypothesis of pronounced heterogeneity of EU countries from the aspect of poverty was confirmed.