In 2023, as many as 9.5% of the population of the European Union could not afford a meal containing meat, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every other day, which is 1.2 percentage points more than in 2022 (8.3% ).
Focusing on people at risk of poverty in 2023, the share at the EU level was 22.3%, which indicates an increase of 2.6 percentage points compared to 2022 (19.7%), Eurostat data shows.
At the national level, the highest proportion of people at risk of poverty who cannot afford an adequate meal was recorded in Slovakia (45.7%), followed by Hungary (44.9%) and Bulgaria (40.2%). On the other hand, the lowest share was recorded in Ireland (4.2%), followed by Cyprus (5.0%) and Portugal (5.9%).
In the EU, the difference between the total population and the population at risk of poverty in terms of affording an adequate meal was 12.8 percentage points (pp)
At the country level, Hungary reported the largest gap with 30.2 pp, followed by Slovakia (27.9 pp) and Greece (27.3 pp). In contrast, Sweden, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Portugal and Ireland reported the smallest differences, all below 4.0 pp.
The ability to afford a meal with a meat, fish or vegetarian equivalent every other day is among the items observed at the household level to calculate the rate of severe material and social deprivation.
