One in five Bulgarians lives in poverty

Around 20–21% of Bulgaria’s population lives in poverty, while some 19% of Bulgarian households struggle to pay their heating bills, Social Minister Natalia Efremova said in Sofia at the presentation of a World Bank report on poverty and the green transition.

Bulgaria has set a national target of lifting 787,000 people out of the risk of poverty or social exclusion by 2030, she said. The number of people at risk has fallen by 455,000 compared with the baseline year of 2019.

A planned reform includes a new model for assessing vulnerability across a range of factors, allowing support to be targeted more precisely at people vulnerable to energy and transport poverty.

The poverty line will rise to €443 in 2027, an increase of 13.4% on 2026, the minister noted.

Editor: Miglena Ivanova