INS: Almost one in five Romanians was at risk of poverty in 2025. 27.4% of the population exposed to social exclusion

The number of people living in poverty in Romania was about 3.47 million in 2025, and 27.4% of the population, equivalent to approximately 5.2 million people, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion (the AROPE indicator), registering a decrease of 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous year, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics.

Severe material deprivation affects 16.8% of Romanians, and 5.6% of people under 65 live in households with very low work intensity.

Women have a poverty rate of 18.7%, slightly higher than that of men (18.0%), while young people aged 18–24 (25.8%) and children (23.6%) are the most affected age groups.

Without social transfers, nearly 44.2% of the population would have been below the relative poverty threshold, and the proportion would have increased to 87.9% among people over 65.

Severe material deprivation particularly affects children (21.1%) and the elderly (19.2%), and households with dependent children have a higher risk of social exclusion (29.4%).

Regionally, the highest values of poverty risk were in South-East (38%) and South-West Oltenia (36%), while Bucharest-Ilfov has the lowest level (13.6%). Approximately 403,000 people are simultaneously in all three situations of vulnerability.