ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) survey to investigate social exclusion in Europe. It deals with a brief review of previous studies of the most disadvantaged individuals in Europe. The introduction of the ECHP survey has meant that information on the social, demographic and economic aspects of individuals in EU Member States is available in a truly comparable format for the first time. The chapter also deals with an analysis of the prevalence of social exclusion across the European Union-12 and of the socio-demographic characteristics associated with increased odds of such experiences. The chapter explains the main features of the ECHP survey. It describes the selection and validation of the sample used to investigate social exclusion across Europe and presents an investigation of the nature of multi-dimensional disadvantage across the EU-12. The likelihood of an individual experiencing multi-dimensional disadvantage was related to the levels of disadvantage on separate domains of social exclusion in their country.
