21% of EU population at risk of poverty, social exclusion in 2024: Eurostat
More than one-fifth of the population in the European Union was at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2024, according to data released Friday by the EU's statistical office Eurostat, Anadolu Agency reports.
Five regions reported rates more than double the EU average, with the French overseas region of French Guiana recording the highest share at 59.5%, followed by the southern Italian regions of Calabria and Campania, with 48.8% and 43.5%, respectively, and Spain’s autonomous cities of Melilla and Ceuta, each with more than four in ten people in this category.
In total, 25 regions saw at least a third of their population at risk of poverty or social exclusion. These were mainly concentrated in Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy and Romania, as well as in France’s outermost territories.
The group also included two western European urban regions – the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium and Bremen in Germany.
At the other end of the scale, 26 regions recorded poverty or social exclusion rates below 12.5%. These included seven regions in northern and central Italy, among them the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, bordering Austria, which had the lowest rate in the EU – 6.6%.
Six out of eight regions in Czechia reported rates below the same threshold, including Jihozápad, which had the bloc’s third-lowest rate at 8.8%.
Other regions with relatively low rates included three regions in northern Belgium (Vlaams Gewest), three in Austria, two in Poland, the northwest Hungarian region of Közép-Dunántúl, as well as the capital regions of Croatia, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.
It was reported, South Korea's relative poverty rate among seniors tops OECD nations.
