The share of people at risk of poverty in the European Union (EU) rose by a slight 0.1 percentage points to reach 16.3% in 2025, encompassing approximately 72.4 million citizens across the bloc, Eurostat reported today. According to data published by the European statistical office, this minor uptick follows a two-year period of relative stability, during which the at-risk-of-poverty rate across the EU had held completely steady at 16.2% throughout both 2023 and 2024.
In contrast to the broader continental trajectory, Portugal registered a steady downward trend in its poverty risk index over the last three consecutive years, with the metric contracting from 17.0% in 2023 down to 16.6% in 2024, and finally settling at 15.5% last year.
Read more: Portugal: 18.6% of population at risk of poverty
Lithuania recorded the highest concentration of residents at risk of poverty at 22.6%, followed closely by Latvia at 22.0% and Bulgaria at 21.2%. Conversely, the Czech Republic logged the lowest rate in the bloc at 9.6%, followed by Belgium at 10.9% and Denmark at 11.8%. The at-risk-of-poverty rate serves as a key socioeconomic barometer, measuring the exact proportion of a population whose total disposable income falls below a country’s national poverty threshold.
