(MENAFN) More than one in five people across the European Union were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2024, according to figures released Friday by Eurostat, the EU’s official statistics agency.

Five regions reported rates more than double the EU average, with the highest recorded in the French overseas territory of French Guiana, where 59.5% of residents were affected. Southern Italy also featured prominently, with Calabria and Campania reporting poverty risk rates of 48.8% and 43.5%, respectively. In Spain, the autonomous North African cities of Melilla and Ceuta each reported that over 40% of their populations fell into this category.

In total, 25 regions across the bloc had at least a third of their populations considered at risk. These areas were largely clustered in Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, and Romania, along with several of France’s outermost territories.

Unusually, the group also included two western urban regions: Belgium’s Brussels-Capital Region and Germany’s Bremen, both showing elevated rates compared to their national averages.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, 26 regions reported risk rates below 12.5%. Among them were seven regions in northern and central Italy, including the Autonomous Province of Bolzano on the Austrian border, which recorded the EU’s lowest figure at just 6.6%.

In Czechia, six out of eight regions fell below the same low threshold. This included Jihozápad, which had the bloc’s third-lowest rate at 8.8%.

Other regions with comparatively low levels of poverty or social exclusion included three regions in northern Belgium (Vlaams Gewest), three in Austria, two in Poland, the Közép-Dunántúl region of northwest Hungary, and the capital areas of Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia.

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