Data published by the community statistical office, Eurostat, indicates that last year, “9.5% of the EU population could not afford a meal containing meat, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every two days”, a value 1.2 percentage points higher than in 2022, when it was 8.3%.

“Furthermore, focusing on people at risk of poverty, in 2023 the percentage at EU level was 22.3%, indicating an increase of 2.6 percentage points compared to 2022” of 19.7%, adds.

By country, the highest percentage of people at risk of poverty unable to 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 percentage 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 access to an adequate meal was 12.8 percentage points.

By Member State, Hungary recorded the largest difference, with 30.2 percentage points, followed by Slovakia (27.9 percentage points) and Greece (27.3 percentage points), while Sweden, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Portugal and Ireland recorded the smallest differences, all less than four percentage points.