Romania has the fourth-highest poverty rate in the European Union, though the country’s long-term trend reveals significant improvements, according to a Euronews analysis based on Eurostat data. In 2024, 23.8% of Romanians were living in poverty, facing varying financial difficulties — from struggling to cover daily expenses to barely managing monthly needs.
Romania stands only 0.5 percentage points above Latvia (23.3%) and below Slovakia, where 28.7% of the population is affected. Bulgaria fares substantially worse, with 37.4% of its population living in poverty. The EU member state with the highest rate is Greece, where a striking 66.8% of people are considered to be in poverty.
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Also in the top ten are Spain (21.9%), France (21.8%), Portugal (21.8%), Hungary (19.8%) and Italy (18.7%).
Eastern European countries report the strongest reductions
Overall, poverty levels in the EU have decreased, although the trend is uneven across the continent. France is among the few countries where poverty has increased in the past decade — by roughly 2%. Similar upward trends appear in Denmark (+2.4%), Finland (+2%), Sweden (+2.8%) and, outside the EU, Norway (+4.7%).
By contrast, many Central and Eastern European countries have significantly reduced poverty levels. Romania ranks among the best performers, with a -21.8% reduction over the last ten years. Cyprus leads the EU (-38%), followed by Croatia (-34.6%), Hungary (-26.8%) and Bulgaria (-26.5%).
The EU’s overall poverty rate now stands at 17.4%, down from 19.1% in 2023 and well below the 2015 level of 27.1%.
Children remain the most vulnerable group: 20.6% of individuals under 18 live in poverty. By comparison, people aged 65 and above have the lowest rate, at 14.9%.
Photo: Romania Insider
