The Canary Islands is the autonomous community that spends the least on dependency per inhabitant, specifically 138.2 euros, and the second that invests the least per potentially dependent person, 1,248 euros, only ahead of Galicia (1,073 euros).
In 2023, the Canary Islands allocated 305,929,108 euros to dependency, of which 71.50% were its own resources (23.2% more) and 28.50% were state funds. The average contribution of all the autonomous communities was 71.43%.
These data are included in the latest report of the State Observatory on Dependency, made public this Monday by the Association of Directors and Managers of Social Services.
The Observatory, which specifies that in Spain there are 292,792 people who remain on the waiting list and that every 15 minutes one of them dies in the "bureaucratic labyrinth" to access the system, denounces the "marked territorial inequality" that still exists in Spain to care for dependent people.
Thus, the autonomous investment varies greatly depending on the territories. To begin with, three communities have decreased spending during the state Shock Plan (2020-2023): these are Castilla y León (with a decrease of 34.7%), Galicia (6.4% less) and Aragón (3.2% less).
According to the report, the autonomous communities that contribute the lowest percentage of their own resources to dependency are Galicia (59%), La Rioja (59%), Andalusia (62%) and Castilla y León (63%).
At the other extreme, those that assume a higher percentage of spending are the Basque Country (84%), Navarra (81%), Extremadura (78%) and the Valencian Community (78%).
The differences are also evident when analyzing the average investment per potentially dependent person: the Basque Country leads the spending (with 2,848 euros), Extremadura (2,599) and Navarra (2,413). The national average is 1,815 euros and at the bottom are Galicia (1,073), the Canary Islands (1,248) and Murcia (1,504).
If we look at the investment per inhabitant, the Canary Islands is at the bottom with 138.2 euros, compared to 428.5 euros in the Basque Country, 378.3 in Extremadura or 342.6 in Castilla y León. The Spanish average is 240.5 euros.
