Luxembourg's poverty risk is higher than the EU average

Fresh Eurostat data for 2024 shows a worrying trend for Luxembourg: 18.1% of the population is at risk of poverty. This is higher than the European Union average of 16.2%. Such a high level of risk for one of the richest countries in Europe calls into question the sustainability of a model in which high GDP does not guarantee social security.

Moreover, Luxembourg looks particularly contrasting to its immediate neighbours. The German region of Köln has 15.8%, Trier 15.4%, Saarland 15.3%, and the Belgian province of Luxembourg only 12.1%. The only neighbour with a comparable level is Lorraine in France with 18.2%.

The overall EU statistics are virtually unchanged from 2023: 72.1 million people are still considered to be at risk of poverty. However, regional differences are striking in scale. The top ten regions with the highest rates are territories such as Guyane with a record 53.3%, the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and Melilla (Ciudad de Melilla) with 41.4% and Calabria in Italy with 37.2%.

At the other end of the scale, there are 28 regions with a risk level of less than 10%. The lowest is 3.7% in the Bucureşti-Ilfov region in Romania, followed by East Flanders (Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen) in Belgium with 5.4% and Bolzano (Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Bozen) in Italy with 5.9%.

The gap between EU regions continues to grow, despite the external stability of the overall poverty rate. In this context, the data for Luxembourg are particularly interesting: with a stable macroeconomic situation, the country faces inequality and social pressures caused by the high cost of living.