ARCHIVED - 2.5 million people in Spain cannot afford to eat meat or fish every two days; poverty on the rise post-pandemic
The figure rose by 750,000 last year as the pandemic hit household budgets across Spain
Despite optimism that as the immunization campaign continues the worst of the coronavirus virus pandemic may have passed in Spain, the economic effects are expected to linger for years and data published by the national statistics office on Thursday underline the extent to which Covid has made it harder for millions throughout the country to make ends meet.
According to the 2020 Life Conditions Survey the proportion of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion rose during last year from 25.3 per cent to 26.4 per cent, equating to approximately 12.5 million people, but even more worrying is that those suffering a severe lack of resources accounted for 7 per cent of the population. This proportion rose during last year from only 4.7 per cent in 2019, and it means that around 3.3 million people are now affected.
Other conclusions offered by the survey are that by the end of 2020 one tenth of the population found it “very difficult” to get by on their monthly income, and as many as 2.55 million people are unable to eat meat or fish at least once every two days. The proportion of the population in this situation rose from 3.8 per cent to 5.4 per cent last year, meaning that another 750,000 people slipped into the category.
Similarly, the number of people unable to go away on holiday for at least one week a year also rose by one point to 34.4 per cent.
The report also provides a breakdown of the data in Spain’s 17 regions, showing that those with the highest rates of risk of poverty or social exclusion are Extremadura (38.7 per cent), the Canaries (36.3 per cent) and Andalucía (35.1 per cent), while at the other end of the scale are the northern regions of Navarra (12 per cent) and the Basque Country (13.9 per cent).