Basque Country and Madrid These are the two autonomous communities that are at the head of all of Spain in terms of prosperity or income opportunitiesthat is, these are the territories that have a higher percentage of population with high income levels.
The study Geographic distribution of household income in Spain: prosperity, inequality and poverty prepared by the Ramon Areces Foundation and the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie) once again confirms the traditional difference between the north and the south of Spain. Thus, communities with the best opportunities for income or relative prosperity are Basque Country, Madrid, Navarre and Catalonia. The research also analyzed the development between 2015 and 2021.
In the case of the community with the highest level of opportunities, the Basque Country has a value of 100 to compare with the rest of the autonomy. The recorded result reaches the greatest difference with Extremadura, with almost 50 points distance. In other words, the inhabitants of the Basque Country have twice as many income possibilities as those of Extremadura, who reach 52.7 points, behind Andalusia, Murcia, the Canary Islands and Castile-La Mancha, which do not reach 60 points, in the line.
In the head, in addition to Euskadi, they are positioned Madrid, with 93.7 points, in addition to Navarre and Cataloniawho are the others who exceed the level of 80 in the ranking score.
Those over 65, in the lead
In the study that attempts to describe the distribution of wealth, it is highlighted that throughout Spain, the age group best situated in terms of income opportunities and relative prosperity is that of over 65s. Thus, people who have reached retirement age They exceed the group of people of working age in the national group by 5.7 points in this indicator.. Only in two autonomous regions, the Basque Country and Castile-La Mancha, the group between 18 and 64 years old exceeds the population already retired from active life.
A ratio which was reduced almost by half since in 2015 it was 12.1 points difference. For those under 18, the gap increases to 20.9 points in 2021. According to the conclusions, this age gap “reflects the deterioration in the weight of wage income in GDP, as well as the increase in the share child poverty, across the country.
The authors, researcher Carmen Herrero and economist Carlos Albert del Ivie, point out that in terms of income inequality between those who have the most and those who have the least, it is seen in communities located at the extremes in terms of prosperity. The greatest inequalities are Madrid (3.1) and Catalonia (2.8), two autonomy with high income opportunities; but also the Canary Islands (2.8), located among the least prosperous. Compared to these, the regions with average opportunities are also the most egalitarian.
Overall, the analysis reflects a positive development in all communities, with the reduction in general inequalities since 2015. Thus, while that year the richest 20% of the population had an income 2.9 times higher to that of the poorest 20%, the situation has improved. improved by 0.3 points, leaving the gap at 2.6 points in 2021
less poverty
In their conclusions, they also state that The percentage of people in relative poverty decreased by almost three percentage points on average in Spain since 2015, reaching 19.6% in 2021. However, differentiating by age groups, the group of children and young people under 18 continues to be the most affected with 27.1% in a situation of relative poverty. Although this is a high percentage, it is down 4.5 points from the 2015 figure (31.6%). In the case of women, this percentage is 20.4%, compared to 18.8% for men. In addition, this relative gap of 1.6 points is larger than in 2015, when the gap with men was only 0.3 percentage points.
In all communities, a reduction in the population with income below 60% of the average income was noted between 2015 and 2021, however, the most pronounced improvement was recorded in Andalusia and the Valencian Community. The Basque Country, Aragon and Navarre are the regions in which the percentage of the population with incomes below 60% of the average is the lowest, respectively 13.8%, 15.4% and 15.9%. . For their part, Andalusia (27.2%), Extremadura (27%) and the Canary Islands (26.1%) have the highest relative poverty rates.
Extreme poverty has also decreased in all autonomous communities., particularly marked in Andalusia, with a drop of 5.1 points, compared to the reduction of 3.2 points at the national level. In Spain, 8.8% of people lived with an income below 40% of the national average income in 2021, compared to 12.1% in 2015. In 2021, Andalusia is the region with the highest percentage of people in situation of extreme poverty, 12.3%. , while in Aragon we observe the lowest percentage, 6.5%.
