More than 3.2 million people in Andalucía are at risk of poverty and social exclusion

The latest report from an association which is dedicated to combating the problem shows that 38.7% of the region’s population were in this situation in 2021

José Luis Piedra

SEVILLE.

Tuesday, 18 October 2022, 09:57

A total of 3.27 million people in Andalucía – 38.7% of the population - are at risk of poverty and social exclusion, according to the latest report from the Andalusian Network for Fighting Poverty and Social Exclusion (EAPN-Andalucia) which provides statistics for 2021.

This is an increase of 1.8 points compared with 2020, and means that 157,294 more people now find themselves in this precarious situation. In absolute terms, 2.7 million people are currently living in poverty in the region.

The vice-president of the group, Susana García, stressed at the presentation of the report that Andalucía is at a disadvantage compared with other regions of Spain. She said the poverty figure may be lower than estimated but no less important for that, and the measures put into effect to alleviate some of the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis had helped.

However, she insisted, the pandemic has not been the main cause of the rising poverty and social exclusion in the region, because it was noticeable before Covid-19 began.

Highest poverty level in Spain

The level of poverty in Andalucía has risen to 32.3% this year, the highest in Spain but on a par with Extremadura. It is 10.6 points above the national average. In its report, EAPN-Andalucía points out that for children under the age of 18 the rate is 43.8%, an increase of 4.9% on last year and 25.9% more than in 2020.

In 2021 the rate of severe poverty, which is measured as 40% of the average national income (in other words the percentage of people who live in households with an income of no more than 530 euros a month) was 15.9% in Andalucía, which was an increase of 4.3 points compared with the previous year.

This makes Andalucía the second region in Spain in terms of extreme poverty, after the Canary Islands. Comparing this with the national average, Andalucía's figure is 5.6% higher, which in absolute terms is 873,522 more people living in this situation.