Around 1.8 million Portuguese citizens representing 18% of the total population were at risk of poverty in 2010, according to a National Statistics Institute (INE) annual report released on Friday.

This represents a slight increase on the previous year (17.9%) – households with dependent-age children were the most vulnerable with the risk of poverty rising to 20.1%.

The over-65s saw their situation improve minimally with the poverty risk dropping from 21% to 20% whilst the under-18s collectively faced a 22.4% risk of poverty, according to the INE.

While those facing unemployment ran a 36% risk level of exposure to poverty, a similar situation was faced by 10.3% of those in employment – a figure up 0.6% on the previous year.

The INE also found that the impact of social security payments - excluding pensions – cut the risk of poverty by 7.3% in 2010, less effectively than in 2009 when such subsidies made an 8.5% difference.

The Survey of Household Living Conditions and Earnings has been carried out in Portugal since 2004 and adopts a statistical methodology harmonised at European Union level for the measurement of poverty, deprivation and social exclusion.