According to a Eurostat publication released on Thursday, the region has the highest risk of poverty, which also establishes a link between the phenomenon and the predominance of the tourism sector.
The region most at risk on the Portuguese mainland is the Algarve, which has 20% of the population in this situation. The Azores have a higher percentage, at 26.1%, as does Madeira (24.8%).
The Canaries, a Spanish region that is also heavily touristy, has around 26% of people at risk of poverty.
At the European level, Italy has the three NUTS III regions with the worst scenario. Two of these, Sicily and Campania, have around 38% and 36% at risk of poverty, respectively. Tourism is also a sector with considerable economic weight in these regions.
Fernando Diogo, a professor at the University of the Azores and a researcher at CICS-Nova, told DI that tourism often means low wages, associated with “hard work” and seasonality, which can be seen as “another form of precariousness.”
“Tourism is very good for the owners, for those in management positions, but for ordinary mortals it’s not so good,” he sums up.
In the Azores, tourism is joined by other activities with the same problem profile. “The activities that are predominant in the Azorean economy, such as agriculture, fishing and construction, have characteristics that facilitate the existence of a large number of poor workers,” says the researcher.

Working poor
Around one in four Azoreans face the risk of poverty. “Most of these people are either children, pensioners or the working poor. Those who do not represent a small fraction in the context. We don’t have 25% of Azoreans at home looking at a doll,” Fernando Diogo clarifies.
The sociologist regrets that this discourse is invading the political domain, which is not exclusive to the Azores. “Just recently I heard a member of the Madeira Regional Assembly associate poverty with poverty of spirit, ignoring the fact that most of the poor are people who work habitually on low incomes. Most of them are permanent workers, and others are precarious workers,” a University of the Azores professor points out.
However, he rejects the idea that “everything is wrong” with the tourism sector but warns that investing in diversifying the economy is necessary. “Tourism has a dark side, and this issue of not helping to counteract poverty, of generating a high number of poor workers, is a significant part of what is called touristification (negative aspects of tourism),” he stresses, rejecting a set of speeches that only see the positive side of tourism.
“We also need to discuss the negative effects in order to minimize them,” warns Fernando Diogo: ”The Azores cannot replace the monoculture of the cow with the monoculture of tourism and the issue is not tourism per se, but diversifying the Azorean economy, so that we don’t put all our eggs in one basket. And, of course, paying better wages is a very important issue.”
Yesterday, DI reported statements by economist Camilo Moniz, who heads the Order of Economists in the Azores, arguing that the archipelago has seen great economic development in the tourism sector in recent years but that a balance needs to be found.
“It’s obvious that the bulk of economic development has come from farming and tourism, which is a source of enthusiasm for many entrepreneurs, but which also brings a number of challenges in social and economic terms. Finding a balance is difficult, but there has to be this concern,” he warned.

GDP and social reality
Also this week, preliminary data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) was released, revealing that real GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth in the Azores in 2023 was 3.4%, higher than the national average of 2.5%.
According to INE, in the Azores, Madeira, and the Algarve, the real increase in GDP was mainly the result of the trade, transport, accommodation, and catering sectors, with the influence of tourism being felt.
The Annual Regional Plan for 2025, a document accompanying the Region’s Budget, states that the Azores’ production profile over the last decade shows a “clear path of specialization in tourism activities.”
Tourism accounts for 14% of total regional GVA, “having almost tripled its value in the last decade (+174% between 2011 and 2022)”.
GVA (Gross Value Added) results from a productive activity over time.
“In 2024, as in 2022 and 2023, trade and tourism activities will remain the driving force behind the Azorean economy,” the document points out.
Fernando Diogo points out that “the fact that there is more wealth does not mean that it ends up in people’s hands equally”.
“There is an inequality in the distribution of wealth, which is universal, but which can be greater or lesser depending on the productive specialties of the local economies,” he says.
In the national context, the Azores are currently the region with the most unequal income distribution.
“There is clearly room at the moment to increase wage incomes and thereby reduce poverty. It has an immediate effect. Another effect is through reforms,” says the CICS.Nova researcher.
Eurostat estimates that 71.7 million Europeans will be at risk of poverty in 2023, corresponding to a percentage of 16.2%.
The highest proportions at risk of poverty are found in French Guiana, “where more than half (53.0%) of people were at risk of poverty, followed by Calabria (40.6%) and Sicily (38%) in Italy,” says Eurostat.
“In contrast, 26 regions recorded percentages below 10%. The Romanian region of Bucuresti-Ilfov had the lowest rates of people at risk of poverty (2.1%), ahead of the Italian Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Bozen (3.1%) and the Belgian region Prov. Oost-Vlaanderen (5.4%),” according to Eurostat.

In Diário Insular-José Lourenço, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.