Income, poverty and inequality

💶 Income, poverty and inequality

How much households in Spain earn on average once inflation is taken into account, what share of the population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, how unequally income is distributed and how all of this varies across regions, age groups and municipalities.

At-risk-of-poverty rate (60% of median): Spain 19.5 EU 16.3France 16.3Portugal 15.4Germany 16.1Italy 18.6 Norway 11.3Denmark 11.8 % of population · 2025 · Eurostat (EU-SILC, ilc_li02) All countries →

Gini index of income: Spain 33.4 France 31.8Portugal 33.9Germany 33.7 (2022)Italy 34.3Morocco 39.5 (2013)US 41.8 (2024)China 36 (2022) Norway 26.5Netherlands 25.7 (2021) index 0-100 · 2023 · World Bank (WDI, Plataforma de Pobreza y Desigualdad) All countries →

Each year's Living Conditions Survey (ECV) asks about the previous year's income: the 2025 ECV covers 2024 income. Poverty, the Gini index and the S80/S20 ratio are calculated from that income. All amounts are in 2025 euros, adjusted for inflation using the CPI.

Real household income

Net income per person, adjusted for inflation, bottomed out with 2013 income (€13,087) and has since risen by 22.5 %. Compared with 2007 income, the difference is 4.7 %.

Income per consumption unit takes into account that household members share expenses: the first adult counts as 1, other people aged 14 and over as 0.5 and children as 0.3. It is the measure used to compare households of different sizes and to calculate poverty. Average income per household was €40,036.

Poverty and social exclusion

In the 2025 ECV, 19.5 % of the population was at risk of poverty (the series peak was 22.3 % in 2016), 8.1 % suffered severe material and social deprivation and 20.6 % said they made ends meet with difficulty or with great difficulty.

At risk of poverty: income per consumption unit below 60 % of the Spanish median; it is a relative measure, so it falls if poor people move closer to the median, not if everyone's income rises. AROPE adds together those who are at risk of poverty, suffer severe material and social deprivation or live in households with very low work intensity (Europe 2030 definition, from 2014). Severe material and social deprivation: being unable to afford at least 7 of 13 basic items (heating the home, an unexpected expense, eating meat or fish every other day, new clothes...).

By age

In the 2025 ECV, the age group most at risk of poverty was "menores de 16 años" (28.5 %) and the least at risk was "65 y más años" (16.4 %).

Older people's income includes their pensions, but not their accumulated savings or the rent saved by those who own their home outright (these figures exclude imputed rent).

Inequality

Spain's Gini index was 30.8 in the 2025 ECV (series peak: 34.7 in 2014). The richest 20 % of the population receives 5.2 times as much income as the poorest 20 % (S80/S20 ratio; EU-27: 4.6 in 2025).

By autonomous community

The differences between regions are large: in the 2025 ECV the at-risk-of-poverty rate ranged from 9.3 % in País Vasco to 39.3 % in Melilla, and net income per person from €12,890 in Región de Murcia to €20,456 in País Vasco. The poverty threshold is the same for the whole of Spain, with no adjustment for each region's cost of living.

Map: at-risk-of-poverty rate (%). The samples for Ceuta and Melilla are small, so their figures have a wide margin of error.

Richest and poorest municipalities

INE's Household Income Distribution Atlas, compiled from tax data, goes down to municipal level. Among the 424 municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, income per person in Pozuelo de Alarcón is 3.4 times that of Níjar (2023 income).

Net income (after taxes and social contributions) calculated by INE from tax data, in 2025 euros; population from the municipal register at 1 January. For some small municipalities INE does not publish the figure, especially before 2020. Look up any municipality in Your municipality in data.

Official sources

• INE – Living Conditions Survey (ECV): tables 9947 and 9949 (income), 9963 (risk of poverty), 76847 and 67240 (AROPE), 9990 (making ends meet), 76846 (Gini and S80/S20) and 76844 (income by age).
• INE – Household Income Distribution Atlas: income by municipality and district (table 30824) and by region and province (table 53689).
• Eurostat – EU-SILC: Gini (ilc_di12), S80/S20 (ilc_di11) and AROPE (ilc_peps01n).
• INE – Consumer Price Index (CPI): used to express amounts in constant euros.

Data updated 7 minutes ago