Around 86,000 people are living in “severe poverty” in the Balearics, with incomes below 40 per cent of the national average – that is, less than 680 euros a month to meet their basic needs. This was explained by the president of EAPN Baleares, Xavier Torrens, who pointed out that the main causes of poverty in the region are precarious housing and a lack of income security.
The report on the state of poverty indicates that each person living in severe poverty has to make do with less than 357 euros a month in the case of a family of two adults and two children, or less than 680 euros if living alone.
Torrens pointed out that some 190,000 people are living in poverty in the Balearics, a figure which, although one percentage point lower than that in the previous report, he considers “unacceptable”. To illustrate the scale of the problem, he warned that the actual number of people affected could be higher. “If we were talking about 190,000 murders, we would react much more forcefully,” he said.
The data, relating to 2025, show a slight rise (+0.3 percentage points) in the poverty rate, which stands at 11.6 per cent – equivalent to around 145,000 people in the Balearics – as well as in the severe poverty rate.
The latter – the percentage of people whose income per consumption unit is less than 40 per cent of the national average income – stands at 6.9 per cent in the Balearic Islands, representing a year-on-year increase of 1.5 per cent.
As Torrens explained, the report does not cover all situations of housing insecurity, such as those of people who share accommodation, live in rented rooms, are homeless or live in caravans; he therefore considered that the figures might underestimate the extent of poverty in the region.
He attributed the persistence of the problem to the increased demand for housing resulting from population growth and the lack of transformative public policies. He therefore argued for the need to promote measures with a medium- and long-term perspective to guarantee the right to decent housing and enable people to escape situations of poverty.
Furthermore, Torrens noted that economic growth in the Balearics is above average, although he cautioned that the generation of wealth does not imply that it is distributed equitably. The data show that the top 20 per cent of the population in the region earn 4.6 times more than the poorest 20 per cent.
The organisation’s president also warned that having a job no longer guarantees escape from poverty, as was the case ten or twelve years ago. In fact, 29.5 per cent of people cannot cope with unexpected expenses, one in five cannot replace old furniture, 14.7 per cent fall behind on their housing bills and a further 12.8 per cent cannot keep their homes at a suitable temperature during the summer and winter months.
Furthermore, the report states that almost 38 per cent of the Balearic Islands’ inhabitants struggle to make ends meet, a figure that “highlights the problem posed by the rising cost of living for hundreds of thousands of people”.
The organisation has emphasised that 37.5 per cent of pensions paid on the islands fall below the poverty line (873 euros in 14 instalments) and, of these, almost half do not exceed 40 per cent of the average income, i.e. less than 582 euros.
On the other hand, the average income in the Balearics has risen for four consecutive years and now stands at 16,735 euros per person, which exceeds the national average. However, these figures “do not reflect the population’s real purchasing power”, as citizens “have gained only 900 euros a year in purchasing power”.
Finally, Torrens called for an end to hate speech and aporophobia, and warned that individual cases of misuse of social benefits should not be used to stigmatise all people living in poverty. The organisation’s president pointed out that “there are people living in poverty who may misuse certain forms of support, but that does not mean that everyone living in poverty who is entitled to social benefits misuses them”. In his view, combating these prejudices requires education, inclusive and conciliatory government action, and a well-informed society.