The risk of poverty or social exclusion in the Canary Islands has increased by 4% in 2020, according to the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN-ES) in its latest report, which analyzes the evolution between 2008 and 2020.
The report presented by the Deputy Minister of Social Rights of the Government of the Canary Islands, Gemma Martínez, together with the president and vice president of EAPN Canarias, Juan Carlos Lorenzo de Armas and Fernando Rodríguez, respectively, takes place within the framework of the commemoration of October 17, International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, and includes data from the Canary Islands such as the aforementioned, adding that 36.3% of the Canary Island population "is at risk of poverty and/or social exclusion."
In this regard, it is noted that in absolute terms in the Canary Islands in 2020 there were a total of 810,900 residents at risk of poverty or social exclusion, which is 37,900 more than the previous year, so that the severe poverty rate is located in the archipelago at 16.7 percent in 2020.
In relation to this, it is indicated that in this last year, with an increase of 49 percent, the rate "has lost in one year everything it had gained in the last three" and also with a difference of 7.2 percentage points above the national average, so the Canary Islands is the community with the highest rate of severe poverty in Spain.
All this, after 147,500 new people have joined severe poverty, bringing the total to 373,600 Canary Islanders.
Likewise, there has been an "important growth" of people who have fallen behind in paying for expenses of the main dwelling (going from 9% to 21.6%, which represents an increase of 140%), as well as among the group of people who cannot afford a meal of meat, chicken or fish every two days, which reaches 7.8 percent (+106.5% more than in 2019).
The Canary Islands occupies the second highest place in the AROPE, poverty, and BITH (low work intensity) rates, while it is in the first position in Severe Material Deprivation.
These data, they indicate, corroborate that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been greater in the population strata that were already in a situation of greater vulnerability before the start of the last crisis, clarifying that proof of this is that Severe Material Deprivation increases almost 50 percent in the last year, affecting 3.3 million people.
In this regard, the head of Research of EAPN-ES and coordinator of the AROPE, Juan Carlos Llano, has indicated that in terms of severe material deprivation, Covid-19 "has taken a year to achieve what the previous economic crisis took six to achieve."
Currently, almost one in ten minors suffer severe material deprivation; one in seven people living in single-parent families; one in four foreign people from non-EU countries and one in 20 Spaniards.
Regarding inequality, the income of the richest 20 percent of the population is 5.8 times higher than that of the poorest 20 percent.
In European terms, the inequality registered by this indicator for the year 2019, the latest available data, is the sixth highest in the European Union, only lower than that of Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Italy.
Thus, Spain has difficulty reaching the goals established by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 2030 Agenda and the European Pillar of Social Rights, so EAPN-ES considers it "essential to make an additional effort" to meet the objectives, mainly, in the context of the current crisis.
Finally, they point out that measures such as the Minimum Basic Income, the increase in the minimum wage and others "have contributed to alleviating the consequences of Covid-19 but their effects on the most severe poverty and social exclusion are not yet reflected."
