In 2025, 15.8% of people in Bulgaria could not afford a meat meal at least every second day, Eurostat said in new data on living conditions in Europe. The EU average is 8.5%.

Only Romania did worse than Bulgaria, at 18.1%. Hungary follows with 15.1%, then Slovakia with 14.2%, Greece with 12.8%, Malta with 11.5%, France with 11.2% and Germany with 11.1%. In all these countries the share is above 10%.

In Bulgaria the share has fallen for 13 years in a row. It was 51.9% in 2012, the last time it rose. It dropped to 39.5% in 2014, below 40%, and to 27.6% in 2019, below 30%. In 2023 it fell below 20% for the first time, to 19.9%, and in 2024 it was 18.7%.

Eurostat also tracks other measures. About 14.5% of Bulgarians could not afford regular leisure activities, against an EU average of 12.1%. Bulgaria has the sixth-highest share on this measure. The highest are in Greece at 27.3%, Romania at 23.3%, Lithuania at 17.9%, Latvia at 16.2% and Hungary at 15.8%.

Home internet for personal use was too costly for 5.9% of Bulgarians. That is the second-highest share in the EU after Romania at 6.2%. The lowest is in Finland at 0.1%. The EU average is 2%, and a year earlier Bulgaria's figure was 7%.