47.8% of households with children in their care are at risk of poverty and/or social exclusion in the Canary Islands. This represents an increase of 15.9% compared to 2015. This is reflected in the annual report The State of Poverty by the European Network of the Fight against Poverty and Social Exclusion.
In total, 376,570 Canarian children and adolescents suffer from this situation, the worst data in the historical series.
These are "unbearable" figures, said the president of the European Network of the Fight against Poverty and Social Exclusion in the Canary Islands (EAPN-Canarias), Juan Carlos Lorenzo, at a press conference, after delivering the report The State of Poverty 2022 to the president of the Regional Parliament, Astrid Pérez.
This report places the Canary Islands with the second highest rate of poverty and/or exclusion risk in Spain, 36.2% of the population, only behind Extremadura (36.9%), when the average for the national total is 26% of the population.
This figure represents a reduction of the so-called AROPE rate of 1.6 points compared to 2021, although the level of severe poverty includes 13.2% of Canarians (287,286 people), the second highest percentage nationwide, and suffers the worst data of severe material and social deprivation and people living in households with low work intensity.
The increase in the cost of living has a lot to do with this, especially the increase in housing costs, especially rents, an option for 34.9% of people in poverty compared to 14.5% for those who are not.
Almost three out of five Canarians pay for their housing above what is recommended, 30% of their income. In the case of young people of emancipating age, it represents 99%.
In addition, energy poverty has increased in the Canary Islands by 134% since 2015, placing it at the head in this parameter throughout Spain: almost one in five people at risk of poverty or social exclusion cannot keep their homes at an adequate temperature.
60% of Canarian households have difficulties making ends meet and facing any unforeseen events and a large percentage cannot pay for basic services.
Even so, in the Canary Islands there has been a "slight improvement" in the last two years thanks to the so-called "social shield" without which poverty rates would have skyrocketed above 50% of the population, calculates the EAPN, which demands structural and not cyclical measures, once the "cushion" measures adopted after the covid-19 pandemic cease to be applied.
The vice president of EAPN Canarias, Fernando Rodríguez, has detailed that since 2015 only 19,000 people have managed to get out of poverty in the islands, so there are 200,000 above the challenge that has been set for 2030 within the Sustainable Development Goals, and that is why "much more forceful measures" are required.
That improvement, in any case, goes at various speeds, since in this time frame more than 80,000 men have emerged from poverty compared to 19,000 women, who earn on average salaries about 20.9% lower than those of men.
In addition to the "gender gap" that illustrates a figure: 38.3% of Canarian women are in a situation of poverty and/or social exclusion compared to 34% of men and the EAPN report focuses on other aspects such as disability as a determining factor: 30% of disabled people are poor compared to 22.7% of the rest of the population.
It also emphasizes that 43.7% of single-parent households are poor or in a situation of exclusion, and that poverty is "inherited": one in three adults who suffer from it have grown up under these circumstances.
And it is precisely these last two data, the poverty of single-parent households and the dysfunctions of the so-called "social elevator" that, together with the increase in population, largely due to immigrant families, may be behind the "alarming" data on child and adolescent poverty, which "has doubled, even tripled" compared to previous years, indicate from EAPN-Canarias.
A trend that is reflected, for example, in the increase in applications for dining room, study and transportation scholarships, Fernando Rodríguez has noted.
From EAPN Canarias they emphasize that "ending poverty is a matter of political will" and of guaranteeing rights, and they ask to move this issue away from the partisan struggle and to work for a state pact and in a Canarian strategy.
From north to south of Madrid
The study The State of Poverty 2022 of the European Network of the Fight against Poverty and Social Exclusion in the Spanish State (EAPN-ES) shows a Spain in two halves: the communities north of Madrid have the lowest rates of poverty and those located to the south, with high figures and well above the national average.
The lowest rates if compared in the AROPE rate (being at risk of poverty, material deprivation or low employment intensity) for 2022 are those of Navarra and the Basque Country, with 14.5% and 15.7% respectively. The highest are recorded in Extremadura and the Canary Islands, with 36.9% and 36.2%, respectively.
That poverty rate is 4.4 percentage points higher than the EU average and the fifth highest of all member countries. Only Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Estonia are above.
One of the conclusions of the report The State of Poverty 2022 points out that spending on housing, inflation and the lack of aid to families with children are hindering the recovery of households: more than 12.3 million people are at risk of poverty and social exclusion.
"The cost of housing, the gender gap and insufficient support for families with children are key elements for the generation of poverty in Spain," explained Carlos Susías, president of the network at the presentation of the research this Tuesday, on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
