A survey from the FRA, with data from 2024, indicates that 95% of Portuguese Roma children aged 17 and under are at risk of poverty, a figure two percentage points lower than the 2021 survey but significantly distant from the general population’s average of 18%.
The overall poverty risk among Portuguese Roma is 93%, compared to 17% for the rest of the population.
For 13 surveyed countries, including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia, the results reveal that, on average, 77% of Roma and Traveller children under 18 live in households at risk of poverty.
The FRA highlights “improvement” compared to 2021 and 2016 surveys but emphasizes that “the poverty risk rates for children exceed those for Roma/Travellers in general in all surveyed countries.”
“There’s no considerable difference between girls and boys or between children under or over 15 years old. As observed for Roma/Travellers in general, the percentage of children at risk of poverty tends to be lower in neighborhoods with a low concentration of Roma/Travellers,” states the FRA.
Regarding severe material deprivation, Portugal is aligned with Romania concerning Roma children under 18, with a percentage of 47%, while the average for the general population children is 21%.
This indicates that nearly half of Portuguese Roma children live in households unable to cope with at least four out of nine basic material deprivations, such as lacking funds for unexpected expenses, inability to heat the home, or lack of meat/fish every two days due to economic difficulties.
The FRA warns that in 2024, 40% of Roma children in Europe lived in families experiencing severe material deprivation and, despite improvements, “the disparities compared to the 2020 data for the general population remain high, reaching 42 percentage points in Portugal.”
Linked to poverty and material deprivation is housing deprivation, with Portugal reported as one of the two countries where the percentage of Roma living in poor conditions increased to 78%, up from 66% in the 2021 survey.
The FRA notes that “one in two Roma/Travellers (47%) live in poor conditions, i.e., in damp and dark homes or without adequate sanitation facilities.”
“The rate has improved since 2016, when it was 61%, but it remains significantly higher than the 18% rate recorded in the EU’s general population in 2023 and 2018,” the European agency points out.
