Women in Serbia are more exposed to the risk of poverty than men

Women in Serbia represent the majority of the elderly population and make up over 50 percent of the total elderly population, according to data from the Republic Institute of Statistics.

Serbia is one of the countries with a higher proportion of elderly population in Europe.

Greece (22,7 percent), Croatia (22,5 percent), Italy (23,8 percent) and Portugal (23,7 percent) have a larger share of older population than Serbia.

The elderly population in Serbia is also exposed to growing risks of financial poverty in the period 2017-2022. year.

The same trend is observed in the territory of the European Union (EU), with the fact that the elderly population in Serbia is continuously exposed to the risks of financial poverty in a higher percentage.

In Serbia, that rate is 22,6, while in the EU it is 17,3 percent.

Health gets worse with age

Health deteriorates with age, so among the elderly population there are far fewer who rate their health condition as good or very good, than among the population under 65 years of age.

Also, elderly people in Serbia rate their health significantly worse than their peers living in the EU.

At the same time, the elderly in Serbia, compared to the younger population, have worse access to health care.

The data presented by the RSO in the publication "Do not exclude anyone from development" show that the use of digital technologies is extremely low among the elderly population, which can limit their access to public administration services, social services, but also to general information and connecting with others.

Thus, during the previous year, only one in ten elderly persons used the Internet to access information on the websites of the state administration, and only one in twenty submitted a request via the Internet.

The new age brings with it accelerated communications, and people over the age of 65 are often cited as the group most at risk of digital exclusion. At the Institute for Digital Communications, in cooperation with the European Union, a program of free education for senior citizens began.

It will take place in ten cities, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Niš, but also in Leskovac, Zaječar, Novi Pazar, Kragujevac, Šabac, Vršac and Sombor.