Poverty in Europe: One in Five Europeans Lives in Precarity, Brussels Concerned

In 2025, 92.7 million people in the European Union, or 20.9% of its population, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion; one in four children was affected. Bulgaria had the highest rate at 29%, followed by Greece at 28% and Romania at 27%, while Czechia recorded the lowest at 12%. France and Germany were both at 21%, close to the EU average. In May 2026, the European Commission adopted its first comprehensive anti-poverty strategy, addressing housing, in-work poverty, protection for older people and stigma.