This marks the worst level of poverty in the country since 2015.
The numbers come from the "Poverty Watch 2024" report by EAPN Poland, the Polish branch of the European Anti-Poverty Network.
This annual report tracks poverty trends across the country and is based on official statistics from both national and international bodies.
According to the report, poverty has increased sharply among children, senior citizens, and people with disabilities. EAPN has defined this situation as "Poland at the edge of a social crisis," and stated that "in 2023, nearly one in every 15 Poles lived in extreme poverty, and almost half of the population struggled with various forms of exclusion."
Among children, the rate of extreme poverty rose from 5.7 percent to 7.6 percent, meaning that over 500,000 children in Poland now live in severe poverty.
The situation has also worsened for senior citizens, with the rate climbing from 3.9 percent to 5.7 percent, affecting around 430,000 older adults.
Households with at least one person with a disability saw an even more significant rise in extreme poverty, from 6.7 percent in 2022 to 9 percent in 2023.
Poland's Institute of Labor and Social Affairs defines extreme poverty as having insufficient resources to meet the basic needs of life, such as housing, food, clothing and medicine.
Living below this threshold puts lives at risk, as individuals are unable to afford even the most basic necessities.
In addition to those in extreme poverty, the report highlighted that the number of Poles living below the social minimum, defined as not having enough to participate fully in society, also surged.
In 2023, over 17 million people—up from 15.4 million in 2022—were struggling to cover essential costs such as access to the internet, dental care, buying books for their children or occasional entertainment.
Experts from EAPN Poland cite several factors for the worsening situation, including economic stagnation, rising cost of living and high inflation, which has been recorded in most EU countries.
They also criticized the lack of adequate adjustments to social benefits, which have failed to keep pace with rising living costs.
Some of the poorest have been left without sufficient state support, the report noted.
"Last year, we warned that the combination of weak economic performance and still high inflation, along with no changes in the level of social benefits or the criteria for receiving them, would lead to a drastic worsening of poverty indicators," said Ryszard Szarfenberg, chairman of EAPN Poland.
"Particularly concerning is the rise in poverty among the most vulnerable social groups, which points to systemic problems in social policy," he added.
The report highlights that poverty studies conducted by the Statistics Poland (GUS) agency do not account for people living in non-residential places or institutions such as homeless shelters, homes for single mothers, social care homes, or foster care facilities.
The Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy conducts a count of people experiencing homelessness every two years, with the latest surveys in 2024 and 2019.
The absence of data collection from 2021 to 2023 was explained by the pandemic and the influx of refugees from Ukraine.
Although the overall number of homeless people rose only slightly by 2 percent between 2019 and 2024, increasing from 30,300 to 31,000, the addition of 712 individuals in the most vulnerable situation is still significant.
The total figures, however, hide a shocking reality: the number of children experiencing homelessness surged by 54 percent.
"Poland continues to experience chaos in both the criteria for receiving benefits and their indexation," said Szarfenberg. "Additionally, new benefits are being introduced, which complicates the overall picture and makes it difficult to assess the system in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. We hope that as part of the work on reforming social assistance, there will be not only an improvement in social assistance but also an overhaul of the entire benefits system."
To address these challenges, experts are calling for an automatic annual adjustment of social benefits to counter inflation, as well as a unified system of income thresholds for social assistance that reflects real living costs.
This would help ensure that those most in need are not excluded from social support programs.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP