VIENNA - One in six people in the European Union (EU) are at risk of poverty, the Executive Director of the Austrian Association for Policy Consulting and Development (OeGPP) said Monday.

Andreas Hoeferl made the comments during a presentation for a study titled "Poverty in the European Union," where he said in 2010 there were 80.7 million people in the EU region threatened by the problem.

"What is particularly unsettling is that it is an upward trend," he said, according to an APA report.

Countries worst-affected by the financial crisis are also those with the highest number of people at risk of poverty, such as Ireland and Spain.

Latvia was at highest risk of poverty with 21.3 percent, the Czech Republic lowest with 9 percent.

Countries with the highest risk of poverty in 2010 along with Latvia were Romania, Bulgaria and Spain, with those most at risk being the unemployed, single parents, large families, immigrants, and older people.

Western European countries are also vulnerable to poverty risk, with 36 million people in the region at risk, and immigrants affected at double the rate of local citizens.

Those least at risk are people with a university degree and full-time workers, the study showed.