In the past ten years, the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate in Romania dropped from 37% to 27%.
72% confidence
Social PolicyRomania
Omissions
The starting value of 37% for approximately ten years ago could not be confirmed with primary sources in the available searches. Eurostat data for earlier periods (2015–2016) would be needed to fully verify the claimed 10-percentage-point drop.
The most recent confirmed figure is 27.9% for 2024 (published April 2025), not exactly 27%. The 2025 data (published April 2026) may show a slightly different figure.
The claim attributes the decline to the European Social Fund Plus and cohesion policy, but the causal link between these programmes and the AROPE rate reduction is not established by the data alone.
The precise ten-year window is ambiguous: the session date is May 2026, and the most recent available data at that time would be 2025 (income year 2024, published April 2026). The claim does not specify exact start and end years.
Sources
PrimaryEurostatIn 2024, the highest AROPE values were reported in Bulgaria (30.3%), Romania (27.9%), Greece (26.9%), Spain and Lithuania (both 25.8%).
PrimaryEurostat Statistics ExplainedThe AROPE rate varied considerably across the EU countries. Bulgaria (29.0%), Greece (27.5%) and Romania (27.4%) reported the highest shares of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion.