36.6% of the population of Canary Islands lives in a situation of risk of poverty or social exclusion, the second worst data in the country, after that of Extremadura, despite the improvement experienced by the islands in 2022, when they managed to reduce that indicator by 1.7 points.
The European Network of the Fight Against Poverty and Social Exclusion (EAPN) has published this Monday its annual report, which reflects that Canary Islands is the second community with the worst rates of risk of poverty (29.4%) and severe poverty (13.2%), with the addition that the first of these two indicators experienced the largest national increase in 2022.
Although the rate of severe material and social deprivation (-3.8 points) and the proportion of people in households with low work intensity (-6.6 points) decreased in the islands, Canary Islands registers the worst data for both indicators, adds the EAPN.
Compared to 2015, only 2,000 people have stopped being at risk of poverty and social exclusion in AROPE terms, which keeps the Canary Islands far from the objectives committed to in the 2030 Agenda, for which it would have to house some 190,000 fewer people subjected to that situation, details the European Network
"The increase in the corrective action of the State appreciated in 2021 is reproduced, although with less depth, during 2022. Thus, the continuity of some of the measures contemplated in the 'social shield' launched by the pandemic continues to have a containment effect on poverty, which highlights the relevance of the role played by public administrations," he warns.
This Monday he presented his report in Madrid, in an act led by Carlos Susías, president of EAPN Spain and EAPN Europe, and Juan Carlos Llano, head of Research at EAPN Spain.
The Valencian Community was the one that reduced poverty the most
This second analyst has pointed out how the Valencian Community, which is almost in the country's average in AROPE Rate (people at risk of poverty and social exclusion), "is the one that has improved the most, it has done so in 3 points in the last year, which is a lot".
In addition, he has cited Cantabria, Catalonia and Murcia as autonomous communities that have also improved, in a general context of decrease in poverty rates, which reaches 12.3 million people, although unequally.
Thus, the reduction of the rate in total terms in the Valencian Community is 3.1 percentage points, which is equivalent to 10.3% less in people in this situation compared to the previous year; while in Cantabria it is 8.9% less; in Murcia it is 8.3% less; and in Catalonia it is 8.3% less, says the report.
The Arope Rate, an indicator proposed by the European Union, takes into account the percentage of people who reside in households with severe material and social deprivation; the percentage of population at risk of poverty; and the percentage of people in a situation of low intensity in employment.
"On the other hand, Navarra, País Vasco and La Rioja, which are regions that normally occupy the best places on the national scale, registered only minimal improvements," the report also says.
This difference in progress is explained by the fact that it is more possible to act against poverty when it is high, Llano explained.
And that fits in turn with a structural situation that the report also points out: the difference in terms of poverty between the north and the south of Spain, which it describes as structural.
