EU Data: 92.7 Million People at Risk of Poverty, With Rates Topping 40% in Parts of Southern Italy, Spain and France's Overseas Regions
Eurostat's regional figures for 2025 show five regions with more than double the EU average, while capital regions in Central Europe have some of the lowest rates.
Original reporting from public records by Watchman Report staff ·
About 92.7 million people in the European Union, 20.9% of the population, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025, according to figures Eurostat published Oct. 16, 2026, the day before the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
Rates varied widely across the EU's 243 NUTS 2 regions. The highest were in Guyane (French Guiana) at 54.8%, Calabria at 45.3%, Sicilia at 44.0%, Ciudad de Melilla at 43.7% and La Réunion at 42.3%, each more than double the EU average. Twenty-four regions had rates of 31.5% or higher, including Brussels-Capital and Bremen, Eurostat said.
At the other end, 24 regions had rates under 13.0%, including the capital regions of Bratislavský kraj, Warszawski stołeczny, Praha, Budapest and Grad Zagreb.
The figures come from Eurostat's datasets ilc_peps11n and ilc_peps01n.
Watchman Report read Eurostat's Oct. 16, 2026 news item on regional poverty and social exclusion. All figures are Eurostat's. "At risk of poverty or social exclusion" is Eurostat's defined measure.
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