SHOCKING: More than one third of all people in Malaga Province are at risk of poverty

MORE THAN a third of all people in Malaga Province are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, according to data from the Junta de Andalucia.

The regional authority’s State of Poverty in Andalucia report found around 37.3 per cent of people living in the province faced or risked facing economic and social hardship last year.

The same figure for the whole of Spain was around 26.5 per cent, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The Junta report found women and children were particularly at risk due to rising levels of gender violence in the case of the former.

There were 8,427 cases of gender violence in Malaga Province last year and around 38.7 per cent of under 18s faced poverty or social exclusion.

Susana Garcia, a researcher for the Junta report working on Malaga Province, said: “The situation has gone beyond an economic crisis and has become a crisis for people.”