This text has been automatically translated, it may contain errors or inaccuracies.
International Poverty Day
Favorite
Remove from my list

X-ray of poverty in the Basque Country: The number of people sleeping in care centres is increasing

About 15% of the population of the Basque Country is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, as concluded by the latest survey of the Spanish Institute of Statistics. Eustat, for its part, has ensured that more than 4,000 people sleep daily in social centres throughout the Basque Country, a figure for 2024, an increase of 24% compared to the survey carried out in 2022.

Personas sin hogar - web  - ES (2)
Photo: orain.eus

About 15 % of the population of the Basque Country is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, as concluded by the latest survey of the National Institute of Statistics. Eustat, for its part, has ensured that more than 4,000 people sleep daily in social centres throughout the Basque Country, a figure for 2024, an increase of 24% compared to the survey carried out in 2022.

On International Poverty Day, we wanted to deepen the data from those reports. 

Since the latest Eustat survey on social centres in the Basque Country, 4230 men and women slept in these resources every night  in the Basque Autonomous Community, 24% more than in 2022, of whom 830 were in a more serious situation, "homeless", and were to be accommodated in shelters, of which 1455 were women, 34.4% of the total.

Personas sin hogar - web  - ES (2)

It should be clarified that this statistic considers homelessness to be a man or woman over the age of 18 who has no accommodation, including persons with dependencies, migrants and international demand, young ex-guardians or women victims of gender-based violence who have to leave their habitual home to ensure their safety. 

The care of these homeless persons is provided through the network ofcentres and services    The network consists of 2703 persons, mostly wage earners (73.8%).

In total, the Basque Country offers 5242 accommodation places in these social centres, 929 more than two years ago. The occupancy rate was 80.7 per cent in 2024. Of these, 2293 are in reception centres and 2913 are in flats or dwellings.

Personas sin hogar - web  - ES

Thus, the maintenance of these care centres for persons last year cost EUR 103.5 million, 36.1% more than in 2022, according to this Eustat study, which estimates that the Basque Country provides 13.3% of accommodation places throughout the State.

Personas sin hogar - web  - ES (4)

Poverty rate

On the other hand, according to the National Institute of Statistics, 15.5% of the population of the Basque Country was at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2024, a figure that has barely changed from the last year (0.4% more).

This data is obtained thanks to the European indicator AROPE , which measures the risk of poverty (9.4% of the Basque population in this situation), serious material deprivation (5.3%) and low intensity of employment (6.5%), and crosses it with nine characteristics relating to the capacity of families, as well as their chances of coping with contingencies or warming up their homes in winter to calculate the volume of the population at risk.

At the time of the survey, 5.5% of households in the CSCreported arriving at the end of the month with "great difficulty".

On the other hand, 22.5 per cent of households had no capacity to cope with unforeseen expenses, which represents a change of 1.1 points from the previous year; 18.3 per cent of households were unable to go on holiday for at least one week a year.

You might like

Load more