In 2022, there has been a deterioration in the living conditions of the general population, driven by persistently high prices for energy, food, rents and interest rates.
There are more families who lack the economic capacity to heat their homes, pay for a week’s vacation away from home, or eat a plate of meat or fish (or the vegetarian equivalent) at least every other day.
The constant rise in energy and food prices, rents and interest rates, especially in mortgage loans, would contribute to the deterioration of the living conditions of the Portuguese population.
The INSD survey on income and living conditions of the Portuguese, published on Friday, showed that in 2022, 17.5% of people living in their homes did not have the financial resources necessary to heat the house sufficiently, which represents an increase of 1.2 points over the previous year (16.4%).
Taking into account that 10,343,066 people live in Portugal, according to the latest INE census of 2021, it means that more than 1.8 million people cannot afford to have equipment or a high energy bill for heating. House. There are 113,000 more people in these circumstances than in 2021, with more than 1.6 million people who say they do not have money for this expense.
Likewise, the number of families that do not have the economic capacity to eat a meal of meat or fish (or its vegetarian equivalent) at least every other day has increased. In 2022, 3% of respondents were in this situation, an increase of 0.6 points compared to 2021 (2%). In absolute numbers, and based on the latest INE census, in 2022 there are more than 310,000 citizens in these conditions, when in 2021 there were more than 99,000, an increase of more than 24,000 people.
Enjoying holidays is also becoming a luxury for more and more Portuguese. Last year, 37.2% of those surveyed did not have the economic capacity to pay for one week of vacation per year away from home, an increase of 0.5 points compared to 2021 (36.6%). Specifically, more than 3.8 million Portuguese do not have money to go on vacation. There are more than 62 thousand compared to 2021 (3.7 million).
For most households, except for those at risk of poverty, in 2022 there was also a deterioration in the housing cost overburden rate”, which corresponds to the proportion of people living in households where the ratio of spending per year in housing and disposable income (it is less than social transfers related to housing) is greater than 40%”, according to the National Housing Institute.
The National Institute of Statistics highlights that “housing expenses include those related to water, electricity, gas and other fuels, condominiums, insurance, sanitation and small repairs, as well as rent and interest on the main home loan.”
Thus, last year, more than 227,000 Portuguese (2.2%) had an effort rate of more than 40% with housing expenses, an increase of 0.4 points compared to 2021, when some 186,000 respondents (1, 8%) showed that they were in the same situation. .
On the contrary, the population at risk of poverty burdened by housing expenses fell to 19.4%. However, the absolute value is very important: there are more than two million people who, with great difficulty, manage to pay for their own housing.