More than one in five EU residents face poverty or social exclusion

Cyprus had 17.1 per cent of its population at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025, below the European Union average of 20.9 per cent, according to figures published by Eurostat.

The data showed that 92.7 million people across the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, equivalent to just over one in five residents.

Cyprus is counted as a single statistical region because of its size, while other EU member states are divided into multiple regions for the purposes of the comparison.

The figures therefore place Cyprus below the bloc-wide average, although they do not reveal differences in poverty and social exclusion between individual districts or communities on the island.

Across the EU, the proportion of people facing these risks varied considerably between regions, with the highest shares concentrated mainly in southern, eastern and outermost parts of the bloc.

In 24 of the 243 EU regions for which data were available, at least 31.5 per cent of the population was at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

These regions were located in Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, France and Romania, alongside two predominantly urban regions in western Europe, the Belgian capital region of Brussels and Bremen in north-western Germany.

Five regions recorded rates more than twice the EU average, with the highest found in French Guiana, a French outermost region, where 54.8 per cent of the population was at risk.

Southern Italy also recorded particularly high levels, with Calabria reaching 45.3 per cent and neighbouring Sicily 44 per cent.

The other regions among the five highest were the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla, where the rate stood at 43.7 per cent, and the French outermost region of Réunion, at 42.3 per cent.

At the opposite end of the scale, 24 regions recorded rates below 13 per cent in 2025.

These included five capital regions in eastern EU countries, namely Bratislava in Slovakia, Warsaw in Poland, Prague in the Czech Republic, Budapest in Hungary and Zagreb in Croatia.

Six regions in northern Italy, four additional regions in the Czech Republic, four in northern Belgium, two each in Hungary and Poland, and one in Austria also fell below the 13 per cent threshold.

The findings highlight the substantial regional differences in poverty and social exclusion across the EU, with Cyprus’ rate of 17.1 per cent below the European average but above the levels recorded in the bloc’s lowest-risk regions.