The EU-SILC dataset has been constructed with the aim of collecting timely and comparable cross-sectional and longitudinal multidimensional micro data on income poverty and social exclusion (European Commission, 2009a). It was launched in 2004 and contains cross-sectional as well as panel data, the 2007 wave covers data from 24 EU Member States, plus Norway and Iceland. All current households and their members residing in the territories are part of the reference population. Those individuals living in collective households and institutions as well as small parts of national territories are not included (European Commission, 2009a).