Poverty soars in Catalonia: 4 million struggle to make ends meet

Catalonia: four million people cannot make ends meet and households with no savings triple

While industrial production struggles and redundancy procedures run at double the national average, Catalonia's population keeps growing, driven by immigration. The result is a region that is getting poorer in relative terms, with productivity per worker that is not only low but getting worse.

The double blow of layoffs and lost savings

According to data gathered by several media outlets, four million Catalans cannot make it to the end of the month and the number of households with no capacity to save has tripled in the past year. At the same time, redundancy procedures (ERE, Spain's collective layoff schemes) are growing at more than twice the Spanish average. The automotive sector, with plants run by Nissan, Ficosa and Adient planning mass layoffs, is the hardest hit. The flight of companies is becoming a chronic problem.

Stagnant productivity and rising population

An analysis by La Razón points to the lethal combination of two factors: a population soaring due to immigration and output per worker that is not only low but also deteriorating. Catalonia is growing poorer compared with Europe while its capital, Barcelona, experiences a wave of layoffs and relocations. The public health system is also feeling the strain of the population increase, as El Periódico notes.

The figure that unsettles

Despite the economic deterioration, Catalonia continues to attract immigrants. The result is paradoxical: more people sharing a pie that is not growing, which drags down per capita income. Any analysis that ignores this demographic mismatch falls short.