Nearly two out of every five pensioners in the Canary Islands receive a benefit below the poverty line. This is according to data published in the 15th Report 2025 on The State of Poverty in the Canary Islands. According to these figures, a total of 133,766 pensioners received less than 827 euros per month in 2024, divided into 14 payments.
The percentage of pensions below the poverty line reaches 38% of pensioners in the Canary Islands, 2.4 points above the national average.
Of the total benefits, for permanent disability, retirement, widowhood, orphanhood, or family allowance, a total of 52,036 people received a pension below the severe poverty line, or what is the same, less than 552 euros per month in fourteen payments. In total, 14.8% of pensioners are in this situation in the islands.
Three out of ten benefits
This reality is aggravated in the case of widowhood benefits, which mostly affect women. 30.4% of these widowhood benefits are below the threshold of severe poverty.
This report concludes that pensioners, mostly 65 years or older, receive "relatively fixed" incomes and have "little room for maneuver to improve their situation," as they depend "exclusively on political decisions." This document states that pensions "have a significant effect" on the generation of poverty among the elderly and in its containment.
In contrast, 47,042 pensioners received more than 2,000 euros per month last year. In total, 13.4% of pensioners received an amount exceeding 2,000 euros per month in 14 payments.
