Eurostat: 27 in every 100 Spaniards at Risk of Poverty

The 2013 Yearbook of the community body allows only a fool’s consolation for Spain: the Spanish are not the last or next-to-last in this parameter, but the nineteenth. In other words, out of the 28 countries of the European Union, there are still 9 behind them -including Italy.

Bulgaria is last on the list, with almost half of its population –a 49.1%- at risk of poverty. Second-to-last is Romania, with 40.3%, followed by Latvia and its 36.6%. Before Spain, we find Croatia (32.7% at risk of exclusion), Lithuania (32.5%), Hungary (32.4%), Greece (31%), Ireland (29.4%) and Italy (28.2%).

Out of the 18 countries slightly better than Spain in Eurostat statistics, there are Poland (26.7% at risk of poverty), Cyprus (24.6%), Portugal (24.4%), Estonia (23.4%) and the United Kingdom (22.7%). The countries with less risk are the Czech Republic (just 15.4%), Holland (15.7%) and Sweden (16.1%).

A total of 121 million people are facing serious economic difficulties in the European Union as a whole, with severe material shortage and low labour activity. The Bulgarian region Yuzhen Tsentralen is the most affected in the EU, with a loss of -9.8% between 2008 and 2011. In second place we find ex aequo Comunidad Valenciana and Lithuania with -9.5%, immediately followed by Murcia and Baleares.

The biggest increase in unemployment among young people has occurred in a total of 6 regions, both Spanish and Greek. Out of the 43 European regions with a larger destruction of employment, there are 15 in Spain, 9 in Greece, 6 in Bulgaria, 3 in Portugal, and 2 in Ireland, Croatia and Romania. France, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have only one single region.