Sofia: Eurostat counted 92.7 million people at risk of poverty or social exclusion across the European Union in 2025, according to the 2026 edition of its Key figures on European living conditions, published on 17 September. The number shows that the Union’s strong labour market has not reached everyone, and in Bulgaria, where the risk has for years ranked among the highest in the bloc, the figure reads less like a statistic than a daily condition.

The publication brings together the main measures that Eurostat collects through its survey on income and living conditions. It opens with income distribution and financial disparities, moves on to household structure, work intensity and childcare, and closes with health, disability and life satisfaction. This year Eurostat added a new set of indicators on housing costs, homecare services and lifestyle choices, areas that have moved up the political agenda as rents and care costs climb in many cities.

Several findings stand out. Eurostat reports that 8.0 per cent of people younger than 65 lived in households with very low work intensity, meaning that the adults in the home worked only a small fraction of the time they could have worked. The agency also finds that people with disabilities faced a higher risk of poverty or social exclusion than the rest of the population in every single member state, a gap that no national welfare system has yet closed.

The indicator itself combines three situations. A person counts as at risk if their income falls below 60 per cent of the national median after social transfers, if their household suffers severe material and social deprivation, or if it has very low work intensity. That design explains why the headline figure moves slowly. A record employment rate lifts some households out of the work intensity category, but it does little for pensioners on low incomes or for families who cannot afford heating and rent.

The numbers feed directly into policy. The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan commits the Union to reducing the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million by 2030, compared with 2019. With 92.7 million still counted, governments face the question of whether minimum income schemes, childcare guarantees and disability benefits are doing enough, or whether the target needs new tools in the next budget cycle.

Readers can explore the full findings in Eurostat’s living conditions release. The coming months will show whether the Commission uses these figures to press national governments in the European Semester, or whether poverty or social exclusion slips behind defence and competitiveness in the Union’s list of priorities.