A total of 72.1 million people in the European Union are at risk of poverty.
The number equates to over 16% of the EU's population and remains unchanged compared to the previous reporting year according to Eurostat.
“At risk of poverty” individuals are defined as those as living on an income below a specified threshold that is considered necessary to meet basic needs.
Ten EU regions recorded poverty risk rates above 30%.
The highest shares were reported in Guyane, an overseas region of France, where 53.3% of the population are at risk of poverty.
Other regions with high proportions include Ciudad de Melilla in Spain at 41.4%, and Calabria in Italy at 37.2%.
By contrast, 28 regions had poverty risk rates below 10%. The Romanian region of Bucureşti-Ilfov had the lowest level, at 3.7%, followed by Belgium’s East-Flanders region (5.4%) and the Italian region di Bolzano/Bozen (5.9%).
