One in five Europeans live on the edge of poverty.

Omissions

• The Eurostat indicator used is 'at risk of poverty or social exclusion' (AROPE), which is broader than the pure income-poverty rate (at-risk-of-poverty rate, AROP), which stood at approximately 16.3% in 2024. The MEP's phrasing 'on the edge of poverty' (στα όρια της φτώχειας) is ambiguous but in EU political discourse commonly refers to the AROPE composite indicator.
• The original Greek text also claims 'one in four children' live on the edge of poverty. Eurostat data for 2024 confirms this: 24.2% of children under 18 in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This child-specific claim was not included in the normalized text for verification.

Sources

• PrimaryEurostat – News article (2025 data)In 2025, 92.7 million people in the EU (20.9% of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
• PrimaryEurostat – News article (2024 data)In 2024, 93.3 million people in the EU (21.0% of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
• PrimaryEurostat – News article (children 2024)In 2024, 19.5 million children in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This figure represented 24.2% of children under the age of 18.