Understanding Poverty in Spain: Conditions, Concepts, and Characteristics

Poverty in Spain: An Analysis

1. Living Conditions of the Poor in Spain

2. The Sociological Concept of Poverty

In public opinion, the poor are often equated with the dispossessed of all or almost all (e.g., the homeless, beggars). This is Absolute Poverty, a concept almost universally agreed upon, though some blame these individuals for their own situation, attributing it to personal choices, vices, and social deviance. Such cases would only number a few hundred thousand in Spain today.

In Sociology, the term poverty extends to the relatively poor – those whose living standards fall below the average for the population. These are individuals who, in economic terms, fall below a certain threshold, although not all experience the same severity of poverty.

Using the most widely accepted criterion in the EU, families are considered poor if they fall below the economic threshold of 50% of the average disposable income in the entire State. In Spain, 19.4% of households were in this situation, according to a 1991 report. This research aims to:

• Establish links and causal connections between economic and social inequality and poverty.
• Describe the influence of economic growth (or lack thereof) on the eradication of poverty.
• Distinguish between economic poverty and sociological poverty, recognizing that both often coexist within the same families and individuals.

These are the objectives pursued by this research.

Perspectives on Poverty

• Extension of poverty (rates)
• Distribution across territories
• Intensity, by degrees or levels
• Sociographic and sociological characteristics of people experiencing poverty.

Lived Experience of Poverty

• Typification of different forms of poverty.
• Select and apply a criterion of economic stratification in poverty:
  • Extreme Poverty: up to 15% of the RDN
  • Severe Poverty: between 15% and 25% of the RDN
  • Moderate Poverty: between 25% and 35% of the RDN
  • Social Precariousness: between 35% and 40% of the RDN
• Discover groups of poor people in better or worse relative situations: e.g., single women or women with families, children out of school, unemployed youth.

3. Characteristics of the Poor in Spain

Key Common Characteristics:

• Poverty rates are above the European average, second only to Portugal and Greece.
• The extent of poverty is linked to the unequal distribution of wealth and disparities in economic growth and development within each Autonomous Community (CCAA) or Province.