January the 6th, 2026 – Eurostat has revealed Croatia’s poverty paradoxes, with one Croatian city in the top 15, and another region ranked among the lowest of the low.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, according to the latest Eurostat data, the City of Zagreb is among the 15 European regions with the lowest share of the population at risk of poverty and social exclusion (there are 244 European regions in the NUTS2 classification). With a share of 11.1 percent of the population at risk of poverty and social exclusion in 2024, Zagreb has advanced an impressive 11 places compared to 2021.
“We want to achieve a high level of social cohesion across Zagreb, which is particularly important in times of global uncertainty and impaired social trust. This data shows that we’re indeed doing better than the vast majority of regions across the European Union, and that our activities have been recognised is also evident from the fact that we won the title of European Capital of Inclusion and Diversity in 2024,” stated Mayor Tomislav Tomašević.
Unfortunately, the most recently released Eurostat data also clearly highlighted a marked discrepancy between Zagreb and other Croatian regions. In Northern Croatia, the share of the population at risk of poverty and social exclusion stands at 18.3 percent (110th place), in Adriatic Croatia, it stands at 22.9 percent (174th place), while in Pannonian Croatia this share reaches an absolutely unacceptable and devastating 31 percent (218th place). According to this indicator, the region of Pannonian Croatia (which includes Bjelovar-Bilogora, Virovitica-Podravina, Požega-Slavonia, Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baranja, Vukovar-Srijem, Karlovac and Sisak-Moslavina counties) is at the absolute bottom of the entire European Union, among the regions with the highest risk of poverty and social exclusion of all.
“Last year, I also took on the role of Shadow Commissioner for Social Affairs for the Eurocities network, together with the Mayor of Florence, Sara Funaro, in order to participate more actively in defining European policies for poverty reduction and better social cohesion. We’re continuously monitoring the living standards of our fellow citizens and adapting all of our offered services and benefits to real needs,” added Mayor Tomašević.
The term “at risk of poverty or social exclusion” refers to people who are severely materially and socially deprived or live in households with very low work intensity. Each person is counted only once in the statistics, regardless of whether they meet multiple criteria. This is the main indicator used by the European Union to monitor the achievement of the goals in the field of poverty reduction and social exclusion by 2030.
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