Half of Non-EU Citizens in the Netherlands Are at Risk of Poverty
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 11 June 2026
- Data source
- Eurostat
- Reference period
- 2025
- Last updated
- 02 September 2026
Key estimates
- 45.3% of non-EU citizens aged 18 and over in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025, against 18.2% of nationals.
- Spain records 53.1%, the Netherlands 52.2% and France 50.1%.
- The Netherlands has the widest gap in the Union: 52.2% against 14.7% for nationals, a difference of 37.5 points.
- In Poland and Hungary non-EU citizens are at lower risk than nationals — the only two Member States where the gap runs the other way.
- All 27 Member States report on this indicator, unlike the unemployment series.
A wider measure than income
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) combines three conditions: low income relative to the national median, severe material deprivation, and living in a household with very low work intensity. A person counts if any one applies.
Across the EU in 2025, 45.3% of non-EU citizens aged 18 and over met at least one, against 18.2% of nationals.
Close to half of non-EU citizens in the Union, against fewer than one in five nationals.
The wealthy countries have the widest gaps
The Netherlands records 52.2% for non-EU citizens and 14.7% for nationals: a gap of 37.5 points, the widest in the Union. Austria follows at 47.5% against 12.3%, a gap of 35.2, then France at 50.1% against 17.0% and Spain at 53.1% against 20.3%.
Sweden and Germany are close behind at 28.8 and 27.3 points.
The pattern is consistent and it is the opposite of what a simple prosperity account would predict. The Member States with the strongest welfare systems and the highest national living standards record the largest differences between their citizens and their non-EU residents.
Part of that is arithmetic. The poverty threshold is set at 60% of each country's own median income, so a high national median sets a high bar, and a population concentrated in lower-paid work falls below it more easily. A non-EU citizen in Vienna earning what would be a comfortable income in Sofia is measured against Austrian incomes.
But the low-work-intensity component is not relative in the same way, and the countries with the widest gaps are also those where non-EU citizens have the weakest employment position — which is where this study meets the unemployment gaps covered separately in this category.
Poland and Hungary
Poland records 13.5% for non-EU citizens against 14.9% for nationals. Hungary records 13.2% against 18.5%.
In both, non-EU citizens are at lower risk of poverty than the citizens of the country they live in. They are the only two Member States where this holds.
The explanation is selection rather than generosity. Both countries have small non-EU resident populations that arrived predominantly for work, into jobs already arranged, in tight labour markets. A migrant population composed largely of employed people compares favourably with a national population that includes pensioners, the unemployed and the economically inactive.
That is a real finding about who migrates where, and it is not evidence that Poland and Hungary integrate migrants better. It is evidence that they receive different migrants.
Greece and Bulgaria
Greece records 42.5% for non-EU citizens and 26.3% for nationals; Bulgaria 42.5% against 28.1%.
Bulgaria records the highest rate for nationals in the Union and Greece the third-highest, behind Lithuania, and the gaps are correspondingly narrower — 16.2 and 14.4 points. As with the unemployment ranking, a narrow gap in a poor country describes shared hardship rather than successful integration, and the two should not be read as the same achievement.
Non-EU citizens at risk of poverty or social exclusion, 2025
| Country | % of adults aged 18 and over | Gap to EU averagepercentage points, derived |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 53.1 | +7.8 |
| Netherlands | 52.2 | +6.9 |
| France | 50.1 | +4.8 |
| European Unionaggregate | 45.3 | — |
| Czechia | 20.7 | −24.6 |
| Poland | 13.5 | −31.8 |
| Hungary | 13.2 | −32.1 |
What these figures cannot tell you
- The poverty threshold is national, not European
- Low income is defined as below 60% of each country's own median. A person can be counted as at risk in a wealthy Member State on an income that would be above the threshold in a poorer one, which mechanically widens gaps in high-income countries.
- Citizenship is not origin
- The comparison is by legal citizenship. Naturalised residents count as nationals, so countries that grant citizenship readily move their most settled migrants into the national group, narrowing the measured gap without any change in circumstances.
- Composition is not controlled
- Non-EU citizens differ from nationals in age, household structure, education and length of residence. The differences reported here are raw and are not estimates of the effect of citizenship itself.
- Survey data on a small subgroup
- Figures come from EU-SILC. In Member States with small non-EU populations the estimates rest on few respondents and carry wide sampling error, which affects Poland, Hungary and the Baltic states in particular.
Frequently asked questions
- How many migrants in the EU are at risk of poverty?
- 45.3% of non-EU citizens aged 18 and over were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025, against 18.2% of nationals. The measure combines low relative income, severe material deprivation and very low household work intensity.
- Which EU country has the widest migrant poverty gap?
- The Netherlands, where 52.2% of non-EU citizens are at risk against 14.7% of nationals — a gap of 37.5 percentage points. Austria, France and Spain follow.
- Are there countries where migrants are better off than nationals?
- Poland and Hungary, the only two. Poland records 13.5% for non-EU citizens against 14.9% for nationals, and Hungary 13.2% against 18.5%. Both have small non-EU populations that arrived predominantly for work in tight labour markets, so the comparison reflects who migrates there rather than how well they are integrated.
- Why do rich countries have the widest gaps?
- Partly arithmetic: the poverty threshold is 60% of each country's own median income, so a high national median sets a high bar. But the gaps also track the employment position of non-EU citizens, which is weakest in several of the same Member States.
Methodological note
Eurostat publishes the at-risk-of-poverty-or-social-exclusion rate by group of citizenship from EU-SILC. This study uses the population aged 18 and over, both sexes, for nationals of the reporting country and for citizens of countries outside the EU.
Values are for 2025 and cover all 27 Member States.
The gaps between the two rates are computed by Silver Data Lab by subtracting one published series from the other and are labelled as derived. The comparisons with unemployment by citizenship draw on the companion study in this category, which uses a separate extraction.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser. The filters below are the ones applied.
Persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion by group of citizenship
ilc_peps05n
- Filters applied:
- freq=A · sex=T · age=Y_GE18 · unit=PC · citizen=NAT, NEU27_2020_FOR · time=2025
- Extracted:
- 2026-08-11
- Source last updated:
- 2026-06-08
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