Greece recorded the European Union's highest share of citizens unable to pay for unexpected expenses in 2025, according to official data released by Eurostat.
More than half of the country's population, at 50.5 per cent, reported having no financial ability to handle unforeseen costs, exceeding the wider bloc's average by a wide margin.
Across the European Union as a whole, 29.2 per cent of citizens could not cope with unexpected financial burdens in 2025. That figure marked a slight improvement from the 30 per cent recorded in 2024.
Latvia recorded the second highest rate in the bloc at 43.7 per cent, followed closely by Bulgaria at 42.4 per cent. At the other end of the scale, the Netherlands posted the lowest share at 15.3 per cent, while Malta and Czechia both stood at 18.7 per cent.
The ability to meet unexpected financial needs represents a core foundation of economic security and directly influences everyday living standards. Alongside financial resilience, physical safety forms another central dimension of quality of life, reflecting how effectively citizens are protected against crime and violence.
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union based in Luxembourg, tracks household resilience to measure poverty and material deprivation across member countries. The emergency spending benchmark evaluates whether private households possess enough savings to absorb sudden essential costs without turning to loans or falling behind on bills.
European homicide statistics
In the area of physical security, figures recorded by police for 2024 highlighted marked variations in homicide rates across European nations.
Lithuania recorded the highest homicide rate relative to its population size, with 2.63 offences per 100,000 residents. Even so, the country experienced the largest reduction over a decade, cutting its homicide rate by more than 50 per cent since 2014.
Latvia followed with 2.40 homicides per 100,000 residents, while Estonia recorded 1.82 per 100,000.
Luxembourg documented the lowest homicide rate in the European Union, registering 0.30 homicides per 100,000 people. Italy recorded the second lowest rate at 0.57, while Czechia reported 0.63 per 100,000.
Eurostat noted that the economic resilience figures covered the calendar year 2025, whereas the police statistics on homicides reflected data compiled for 2024.
