The risk of poverty in Romania
Nearly 3.6 million Romanians were living in relative poverty last year, the National Statistics Institute announced
Daniela Budu, 10.11.2025, 14:00
The relative poverty rate in Romania in 2024 was 19%, accounting for 3,595,000 people, according to data centralised by the National Statistics Institute (INS). According to the INS, the relative poverty rate is the share of poor people who have a disposable income per adult below the threshold set at 60% of the median disposable income per adult in the total population.
Poverty is the situation in which incomes are so low that it is impossible for people to reach the living standards viewed as acceptable in the society in which they live. They face multiple disadvantages related to unemployment, low income, poor housing, inadequate healthcare and barriers to access to education, culture, sports and leisure, the INS explains. The institute emphasises that the risk of poverty affects people in varying degrees, depending on age bracket, working capacity and, obviously, incomes.
The highest poverty rate in Romania is found among children under 18 and young people aged 18-24. According to the INS, poverty is unevenly distributed by region. For example, the poverty rate was 8 times higher in Oltenia (south-west) than in Bucharest-Ilfov. High poverty rates were also recorded in the south-east (26.8%) and north-east (26.4%), and the lowest in Bucharest-Ilfov (3.7%).
At European level, 8.2% of employed EU citizens aged 18 or over were at risk of poverty last year, according to the latest data made public by the European Statistics Office.
According to Eurostat, among the member states, the highest percentage of employees facing poverty risks was in Luxembourg (13.4%), and the lowest in Finland (2.8%). Other countries with shares between 10% and 12% are Romania, Bulgaria, Spain, Greece, Estonia, Italy and Slovakia.
In this context, the European Commission announced that it is preparing a new strategy to curb poverty in all member states, which would be applied next year. Currently, the EU earmarks EUR 20 billion to fight poverty. Even so, according to official data, 1 in 5 Europeans is at risk of poverty and social exclusion.
The new plan aims to eliminate poverty in the EU by 2050. The document was recently presented in a plenary session of the European Parliament by the Commission vice-president responsible for social rights, commissioner Roxana Mînzatu (Romania).
She said that the first European strategy to fight poverty is being developed. Its goal is not only to lift 15 million European citizens (including at least 5 million children) out of poverty and social exclusion, but also to establish a clear path to eradicate poverty by 2050. “Our strategy to fight poverty will focus on what matters most: access to essential services and protection, addressing the root causes of social exclusion, breaking the cycle of poverty from one generation to the next and, of course, implementing a stronger European Child Guarantee,” Roxana Mînzatu explained in the EP. (AMP)
