The European Union’s statistical office attributes a mere 1.6% improvement to real incomes in Spain over fifteen years. Eurostat states in its latest report on “living conditions” in the European Union that the real disposable income of its citizens has grown by only 1.6% in Spain over the last fifteen years, whereas the EU average grew by 20%. Eurostat measures average real income—the amount left after taxes are deducted from earnings—taking into account differences in purchasing power between countries and price changes.
This places Spain in 23rd place out of 27, below Cyprus. Ranked even lower are France, Italy, and Greece, where real per capita income has not just failed to rise, but has actually decreased, according to Eurostat data. In contrast, real income has risen by 262% in Romania, 187% in Latvia, 186% in Lithuania, 181% in Bulgaria, and 178% in Poland during the same period.
Spain also does not stand out in the so-called Gini coefficient, which measures inequality within countries. “In 2024, the Gini coefficient for the EU was 29.3%. Among EU countries, the largest income disparities were recorded in Bulgaria (38.4%), Lithuania (35.3%), and Latvia (34.2%),” according to Eurostat. Spain is also worse than the average, with a score above 31%. However, “incomes were more equitably distributed in Slovakia, Czechia, Slovenia, and Belgium, all of which had Gini coefficients below 25.0%.”
Spain also fares poorly in the report published this Wednesday by Eurostat regarding the risk of poverty, particularly child poverty. Eurostat attributes this unfortunate situation to 34% of Spaniards under 18, a rate surpassed only by Bulgaria and higher than Romania.
