Approximately 20.5% of Madeira's population was at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2025, equivalent to one in five people. This figure represents a fall of 2.4 percentage points from 22.9% in 2024, moving closer to the national average of 18.6%.
The EAPN Portugal report "Poverty and Social Exclusion in Portugal 2026" also shows that the monetary poverty rate fell from 19.1% to 16.6%. Income inequality narrowed, with the Gini coefficient dropping from 31.1% to 29.5%.
Social transfers, excluding pensions, reduced the risk of poverty in Madeira by 33.6%, the largest proportional reduction among Portugal's regions. However, the proportion of people in households with very low work intensity rose from 5.6% to 6.2%, an indicator that warrants monitoring.
