Close to one in three Spaniards at risk of poverty, official study warns

The rate of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Spain reached 26.5% in 2023, while the share of those living with “severe material and social deprivation” reached 9%, the highest rate since 2015, an official revealed on Monday shows.

The survey on living conditions published on Monday by the state-run National Statistics Institute (INE) presented negative trends while also revealing somewhat optimistic information.

While noting the stark differences in poverty between regions, with the southern regions having twice the poverty risk of the northern regions, experts also pointed to the worrying percentage of the population living in a situation of “severe material and social deprivation” – people who are unable to go on holiday at least once a year, buy meat, chicken, or fish every two days, or keep their homes at a decent temperature in winter.

Compared to the overall population, 9.3% said they would have “great difficulty” making ends meet, with the figure going up 0.6 percentage points between 2022 and 2023.

When analysing the factors that determine ‘severe material and social deprivation’, the study highlights that 37.1% of households will not be able to meet unforeseen expenses (compared to 35.5% in 2022) or that 33.1% will not be able to afford a holiday away from home for at least one week a year (0.4 points less than the previous year).

In terms of household income, Spain is the only OECD member country for which it fell most since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the third quarter of 2022, which are the latest comparable figures available.

According to data published by the OECD in February 2023, real income per capita (an indicator that subtracts taxes and contributions and adds social benefits) in Spain fell by 7.85% between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2022.

Spain also suffers from high unemployment (11,76%), particularly among young people, according to Eurostat data.

Nearly 30% of the Spanish population cannot replace their damaged or old furniture, 20.7% cannot heat their homes in winter, and 13.6% have experienced delays in paying housing-related expenses or making purchases on credit or instalments, according to the study.

The risk of poverty and social exclusion particularly affects children under the age of 16.

According to the INE study, in 2023, 1.7% of the Spanish population will be at risk of both poverty and severe material and social deprivation, as well as low employment intensity, two factors that mark the highest risk of social exclusion.

Caritas, the European Network Against Poverty and Social Exclusion (EAPN-ES), Save the Children, and Educo have called for support for families following the publication of the Living Conditions Survey.

On a more positive note, the survey noted that the share of people on low incomes in relation to the total Spanish population (48 million people) fell from 20.4% in 2022 to 20.2% last year, while the proportion of the population with ‘low employment intensity’ (with little work activity) fell from 8.7% to 8.4% during the same period.

Another positive development is that the average income per person reached €14,082 in 2023, 8.3% higher than in 2022 – representing the largest increase in recent years after 2022’s 6% increase and a 0.2% decrease in 2021.

The study also shows that the at-risk-of-poverty threshold for single-person households will be €10 990 in 2023 and for households with two adults and two children €23 078.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)