ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the changes in the socioeconomic structure of households. It provides a more detailed analysis of the more important income sources and the main socioeconomic groups, employees, pensioners, persons active in agriculture, showing the large differences in the income structure and socioeconomic structure between rich and poor households. The chapter presents a brief comparative analysis of the coverage of two types of social benefits - unemployment benefits and family benefits. The most important income source for households is pensions. The relative importance of pensions, measured as percentage of GDP, shows remarkable stability in the four countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia, and decreases in certain years can be explained by deliberate government policy. The diverse values of the concentration coefficient for income from agriculture are the result of very different national experiences. Hungary exhibits high values of the concentration coefficient, implying a strong entrepreneur-oriented agriculture.
