Eurostat highlights regional divide in poverty and social exclusion risk

Some 92.7 million EU residents, or 20.9% of the population, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025, Eurostat said in an October 16 review of regional differences.

The rate in French Guiana was 54.8%, followed by Italy’s Calabria at 45.3% and Sicily at 44%. Spain’s Melilla, at 43.7%, and France’s Réunion, at 42.3%, also exceeded twice the EU average.

In 24 of the 243 regions with available data, at least 31.5% of residents were at risk. Such rates were concentrated mainly in southern, eastern and outermost EU regions.

At the other end of the distribution, 24 regions recorded rates below 13%. These included the capital regions of Slovakia, Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Croatia.