Around 22% of the population of the European Union were at the risk of poverty in 2022, with the highest values reported in such member states as Romania and Bulgaria, the statistical office of the European Union, Eurostat, said on Wednesday.
“In 2022, 95.3 million people in the EU (22% of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, i.e. lived in households experiencing at least one of the three poverty and social exclusion risks: risk of poverty, severe material and social deprivation, and/or living in a household with very low work intensity,” Eurostat said in a statement, Sputnik reported.
Highest shares of people at risk of poverty in the population were reported in Romania (34%), Bulgaria (32%), Greece and Spain (both 26%), whereas such countries as the Czech Republic (12%), Slovenia (13%) and Poland (16%) had the lowest shares in the bloc, Eurostat added.
Similar values were recorded in 2021, when around 95.4 million people in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the statement read.