2024-07-12 11:07:59
In 2023, 9.5 percent of the EU population could not afford a meal containing meat, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every other day, 1.2 percentage points (pp) more than in 2022. (8.3 percent), according to Eurostat data.
Among people at risk of poverty (those earning less than 60 percent of a country’s median disposable income – ed.), the share of the population that cannot afford nutritious food is 22.3 percent in the EU or an increase of 2.6 percentage points compared to 2022.
The share of people at risk of poverty who cannot provide adequate food is highest in Slovakia (45.7 percent), followed by Hungary (44.9 percent) and Bulgaria (40.2 percent).
Thus, for the first time, our country is not in the last place according to this indicator.
In 2007, when our country entered the EU, the number of Bulgarians with the lowest income who could not afford an adequate living was 88.5 percent.
On the other hand, the lowest share was recorded in Ireland (4.2 percent), followed by Cyprus (5.0 percent) and Portugal (5.9 percent).
In the EU, the gap between the general population and the population at risk of poverty in terms of access to adequate food is 12.8 percentage points. At the national level, Hungary reports the largest gap of 30.2 percentage points, followed by Slovakia (27.9 percentage points) and Greece (27.3 percentage points). Sweden, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Portugal and Ireland report the smallest differences, all below 4 percentage points.
Of the total population in our country in 2023, 19.9 percent will not be able to afford adequate food. Thus, for the second year in a row, Bulgaria is not in the last place in the ranking – only Romania remains behind us with 23.3 percent, adds BTA.