Andalusia has Spain's highest poverty risk at 34.7% in EAPN's 2026 report

National picture

The XVI report 'El Estado de la Pobreza' from EAPN-ES, published on 15 October 2026, puts Spain's AROPE rate (at risk of poverty and/or exclusion) at 25.7% of the population for 2025, equal to 12.6 million people. The indicator is stable on the previous year, and the report stresses that over the last 15 years it has never dropped below 25%. Regional gaps reach up to 20 percentage points, with the south worst placed: Andalusia (34.7%), Castilla-La Mancha (34%) and the Region of Murcia (32.5%) record the highest AROPE rates, while the Basque Country (14.7%), the Balearic Islands (15.2%) and Navarre (16.5%) record the lowest.

Regional gaps

EAPN Andalucía presented its report in Seville ahead of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October. The region's AROPE rate of 34.7% equals about three million people and sits nine points above the state average, although it fell 0.9 points from 2024, about 67,000 fewer people. The poverty rate of 27.7%, roughly 2.4 million people, dropped 1.5 points, while severe poverty at 11.4% is the second highest in the country. José Miguel Morales, president of EAPN in Andalusia, put the effect of public aid this way:

If it were not for the state aid that forms the social shield, the poverty rate in Andalusia would be 52%, more than half the population.

In the Region of Murcia the AROPE rate is 32.5%, nearly 515,000 people and 6.8 points above the state average. More than half of residents, 55.1%, report difficulty making ends meet, and average income per person of 12,554 euros a year is the lowest in Spain. In the Valencian Community the AROPE rate rose to 30.7%, close to 1.7 million people and around 100,000 more than the previous year, when it stood at 29.9%.

Islands and the north-west

In the Canary Islands the AROPE rate is 31.2%, around 704,000 people, and the report says the downward trend of the past four years has been broken. Child poverty touches about 91,000 children, 7.3 points above the national average. Average income per person is 1,185 euros a month, 117 less than the state average, and the richest 10% earn 8.6 times what the poorest 10% earn. In Castilla y León, EAPN CyL records a poverty rate of 19.8%, above the national 19.5% for the first time, while 30.9% of children are at risk of poverty or exclusion. Óscar Castro, president of EAPN in Castilla y León, said:

The objective must not be to manage poverty but to move towards its eradication.

Housing and inequality

Nationally, 43.6% of people renting at market price are at risk of poverty or exclusion. In Madrid the AROPE rate is 19.4%, one of the lowest in the country, yet its richest 20% hold more than five times the income of the poorest 20%. In the Balearic Islands 37.8% of residents struggle to make ends meet, and the AROPE rate of 15.2% covers about 190,000 people, down one point. The at-risk population spends 41.2% of its income on housing, 2.5 times the 16.4% spent by Balearic residents overall.