Social exclusion

A large part of Greek society (combining various indicators and statistics, one can estimate it's approximately a third of it) is having difficulty making ends meet. If in previous years poverty was linked to unemployment, today the "strong" Greek economy is massively producing the newly poor - people who are poor or penniless even though they have a job.

Nearly half of Bulgaria's pensioners are at risk of poverty and social exclusion, as highlighted in the European Commission's pension adequacy report. Data for 2022 reveals that 45.5% of individuals aged 65 and older in the country face this concerning situation.

One in three children in Bulgaria faces the risk of poverty and social exclusion, according to the latest figures from Eurostat. This places Bulgaria among the top three EU countries for this issue, alongside Romania and Spain.

Data released Wednesday by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, indicate that one in four Greeks and two in 10 Europeans were at risk of poverty or social exclusion last year. 

"Let's all play soccer: Greeks vs Foreigners," said a young boy in the courtyard of the 23rd Primary School of Athens, floating the idea. As 10-year-old Grace headed towards the net with the confidence of a key player and the school team's goalkeeper, one of her classmates said something that took her aback: "But you're a foreigner, you have to go on the other team!"

Greece is one of the worst countries in the European Union for a child to live in, as it appears that the youngest citizens pay the highest price for the chronic inadequacies of the state, the low quality of the education system and the health system, as well as the inability of the social protection system to really and effectively support them.

The rising cost of living, the threat of poverty and social exclusion, and the migration issue are Cypriots' greatest concerns, according to the European Parliament's Autumn 2022 Eurobarometer Survey released on Thursday.

EU member states, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Poland and Spain, have continued to engage in illegally turning back migrants and perpetrating violence at their borders, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report on the state of human rights around the world.

In 2021, in the European Union, residents under the age of 18 who were at risk of poverty or social exclusion represented 24.4 percent of all in this age group. At the same time, this share among the adult population of the Union was 21.1 percent, according to the latest data of the European statistical agency Eurostat.

The population at risk of poverty or social exclusion rose to 28.9% of the country's population (3,043,869 people) in 2020, showing a decrease compared to 2019 by 1.1 percentage points (3,161,936 people corresponding to 30, 0% of the population), according to the latest data of the Income and Living Conditions Survey of Households 2020 of the Hellenic Statistical Authority.