Despite differences among nations, poverty in the European Union declined between 2015 and 2023, according to a study published September 30, 2026 in the open access journal PLOS One by Silvia Megyesiova and Cecilia Olexova from the Bratislava University of Economics and Business, Košice, Slovak Republic.
Ameliorating poverty is an international grand challenge. In 2021, as many as 1.3 billion people lived in poverty while a further 240 million people were classified as “extreme working poor.” While income is traditionally used as the sole measure for poverty, events like the COVID-19 pandemic have underscored poverty’s many facets: physical and digital infrastructure, information literacy, environmental threats, and more must be acknowledged in any assessment of poverty.
This study aimed to analyze poverty across and among European Union Member States. To quantify poverty, the researchers used 10 metrics identified in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including "[percent of] persons at risk of monetary poverty after social transfer," "housing cost overburden rate," and "severe material and social deprivation rate." The analysis included three time spans: 2015–2019, 2020 (isolated because of the COVID-19 pandemic), and 2021–2023.
In general, poverty in the European Union declined from 2015 to 2023. In 2015, the rate of persons at risk of monetary poverty after social transfer was 17.4%; By 2023, this figure had declined to 16.2%. Additionally, the average severe material and social deprivation rate dropped from 9.7% to 6.8%.
Individual countries followed a similar trajectory. In 2015, Spain, Lithuania, Latvia and Romania had poverty rates over 22%. By 2023, only Estonia and Latvia were in this category. Romania improved most significantly between 2015 and 2023, where the percentage of persons at risk of monetary poverty declined from 25.4% to 21.1%. Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Latvia form the most vulnerable cluster from 2021 to 2023, whereas several countries in Northern and Western Europe show stabler trends.
These results highlight the need for sustainable policy responses that reflect each European country’s individual needs to increase resilience and ultimately eradicate poverty.
The authors add: “Poverty and social exclusion across EU countries cannot be understood through economic prosperity alone. Looking beyond income, particularly at material deprivation, housing conditions and digital skills, provides a more complete picture of social vulnerability across the European Union. While poverty generally declined over the analyzed period, substantial disparities between EU Member States persisted, with Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Latvia forming the most vulnerable cluster in the final period (2021-2023). The findings also show that multidimensional poverty profiles evolve over time and do not necessarily follow traditional geographical divisions within Europe.”
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One : https://plos.io/4AiZpyS
Citation: Megyesiova S, Olexova C (2026) Multivariate analysis of poverty and social exclusion across EU countries in the context of Sustainable Development Goal 1. PLoS One 21(9): e0343050. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0343050
Author countries: Slovak Republic.
Funding: The Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth of the Slovak Republic - project KEGA 020EU-4/2025 „The Development of a Model for an Innovative Didactic Concept to Enhance Green Skills of Students at Economics-focused Universities with an Emphasis on Ecosystem Sustainability“. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
PLOS One
Observational study
People
Multivariate analysis of poverty and social exclusion across EU countries in the context of Sustainable Development Goal 1
30-Sep-2026
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.