35% of minors in Malaga province live in households at risk of poverty

35% of children in Malaga province live in households at risk of poverty. What does this mean? According to international standards, a family is at risk of poverty if its annual income is below 60% of the median household in the area where it lives. The median is not the same as the average. The median is determined by looking at the income of all households and finding the amount that sits exactly in the middle of the distribution, meaning there are as many families above it as below it.

The median income in Spain stands at 19,250 euros, according to the latest data published by the national institute of statistics (INE) for the 2023 financial year. So a household at risk of poverty is one that earns less than 11,550 euros per year.

While just over three in ten children in the province live in low-income households, there are many areas where the figures are worse. For example, in Ceuta and Melilla, around 47% of children under 18 live in households at risk of poverty, followed by 43.4% of children in Almeria, 40.3% in Jaén and 39.9% in Granada. Alicante and Ávila have similar figures. Almost 37% of all minors in Andalucía are close to the poverty line.

Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya are the only two provinces where the child poverty rate is below 20%.

Malaga is among the provinces where the number of children living in low-income families has dropped over the last five years: the figure was 36.2% in 2018. However, the Costa del Sol province still has worse poverty ratios than the Spanish average (29.2%).

This higher rate of child poverty in Malaga is explained by the fact that the median income in Malaga is lower than in Spain: 19,250 euros for the country as a whole and 16,450 euros in Malaga.

There is another indicator that is also used as an international standard: severe poverty, which corresponds to households with incomes below 40% of the median income, i.e. less than 7,700 euros a year. This affects 17.5% of children in Malaga (five years ago it exceeded 20%). In Ceuta and Melilla, the number rises to 25% and to above 20% in Alicante and Almeria.

The lowest proportion is, once again, in Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya, with 6.5% and 8.3%, respectively. The national average is 14%.

What happens in other age groups? Financial poverty is less prevalent among people in the 65+ age group in Malaga province: 21.8% of the elderly live in households with annual resources under 11,550 euros, while 7.9% live in severe poverty. These figures, however, are higher than the national average of 15.8% and 4.2%, respectively

In the 18-64 age group, 27.1% live in households at risk of poverty, while severe poverty reaches 13.6%. Again, worse than the Spanish average of 21% and 10%, respectively.