Access toyouth emancipation in the Balearic Islands is sufficiently conditioned by place of origin and gender, but also by a context of labor precarity that hinders the construction of solid and independent life projects. This is what the Youth Yearbook 2025 reports, which indicates that the differences in access to housing and employment “show structural inequalities that institutions have not yet tackled with enough force”.

The deception isn't sophisticated, but it is effective. The wheel of the system turns in favor of the capitalists, who always win in this roulette of bad luck. On the other hand, there are the poor, who rent out their bodies and brains by the hour in exchange for a wage they must spend to feed the 'natural' state of things.

The number of young people registered in the Balearic Islands but residing abroad has steadily increased in recent years. According to data included in the 2025 Balearic Islands Youth Yearbook, this year there were 13,330 young people between the ages of 15 and 34 registered in the Balearic Islands but living elsewhere, a figure that almost triples the number recorded in 2009, when there were 3,409 (+291%). The increase is also very significant when compared to 2015, when 6,425 young people were in this situation. The sustained growth of this indicator points to a possible exodus of educated young people abroad, in a context that, paradoxically, shows a recovery in the demographic weight of the young population in the Islands. In fact, the Yearbook confirms that the young population is growing again after years of a downward trend. Young people up to 34 years old currently represent 24% of the total population. For the first time, municipalities like Palma and Manacor have exceeded 20% young population, while no municipality now has less than 12%, demonstrating a more homogeneous territorial distribution of young people.

On January 1st, the body of a 52-year-old man was found dead in a park in the Camp Redó neighborhood of Palma. He was homeless and, according to news reports, died from various illnesses. And also, evidently, from the effects of living on the streets and spending nights outdoors during a cold snap.

The Balearic Islands are facing an unprecedented housing crisis. According to the 9th Foessa Report on Exclusion and Social Development, presented this Wednesday by Cáritas, 46,000 households in the archipelago fall into severe poverty simply after assuming the cost of rent and utilities. Representatives of the organization warn that the right to housing has become a "false right" and that real estate pressure is forcing many families out of the possibility of living with dignity. "Housing expels people from their land and from a dignified life," stated Foessa sociologist Thomás Ubrich at the report's presentation in Palma. "It's not the people who are failing, but the system," he added, highlighting that many households try to escape exclusion but encounter structural barriers and fragmented support systems that prevent their recovery. Between 2018 and 2024, housing prices continued to skyrocket. In Palma, rents have increased by 38%, and across the Balearic Islands as a whole, by 27%, with the average price now reaching €1,598 per month, a 31% increase compared to 2019. Today, 32% of the population lives in rented accommodation, ten points above the national average, and the Balearic Islands continue to be among the regions with the highest rates. This situation is putting enormous pressure on households, especially in areas like Ibiza, where market tension is greatest. Between 2018 and 2024, the purchase price has risen by €40,000.

Reports of improper payments under the Guaranteed Social Income (Resoga) program "have generated understandable public concern," acknowledged EAPN Illes Balears, which reiterates that "any public benefit must have the necessary control and efficiency mechanisms to guarantee its proper implementation." According to the organization, "transparency and sound management of public funds are non-negotiable conditions in a social and democratic state governed by the rule of law." However, EAPN Illes Balears warns that "we cannot allow Resoga beneficiaries to be blamed in a generalized way (when it is the Administration that has neglected its duties, stalling applications without resolution or failing to establish control mechanisms), nor can we allow these cases to serve as an excuse." The organization emphasizes that the benefit "is intended to protect the dignity and rights of the thousands of people who suffer high levels of vulnerability in the Balearic Islands."

The Balearic Islands have a social exclusion rate of 19.1% in 2024, representing a slight decrease compared to 20.7% in 2018, according to data published this Wednesday in the IX Foessa Report, presented by Caritas in Spain, which warns that, however, there is an increase in ''. Specifically, according to the published data, the Balearic Islands have a severe exclusion rate of 7.7% (1.9 points lower), a moderate exclusion rate of 11.3% (0.2 points higher), a precarious integration rate of 38.9% (2.5 points higher), and a full integration rate of 42%. The Foessa Report addresses other issues, such as corruption, as a problem that threatens the legitimacy of institutions. It refers to the elimination of the Office for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption in the Balearic Islands and warns of the impact on the permeability of populist discourse. This is an unprecedented process of social fragmentation in the State.

The report warns of an "unprecedented process of social fragmentation" in Spain, with an "apparent boom" coexisting with "one of the highest rates of inequality in Europe," leading to "a society of unease" in which 4.3 million people live in severe exclusion, a third of them children. "Spain is undergoing an unprecedented process of social fragmentation. The middle class is eroding and dragging many families down to lower strata. After two decades of successive crises, the recovery phases have not closed the gap. We are talking about 4.3 million people living in severe social exclusion," warned Raúl Flores, technical secretary of the Foessa Foundation and coordinator of the report, this Wednesday at a press conference in Madrid. According to the study (conducted by a team of 140 researchers from 51 universities, research centers, foundations, and third-sector organizations, and based on interviews with 31,015 people), social integration is "eroding" and severe exclusion remains "well above 20% levels." In any case, the study dismantles "the myth of passivity" because it points out that, despite the difficulties faced daily by households in severe exclusion, three out of four activate inclusion strategies; that is, they look for work, pursue training, activate networks, and adjust expenses. "It's not the people who are failing, it's the system," Flores stated.

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According to the study, 55.6% of the families assisted by the San Juan de Dios Foundation in Mallorca between 2018 and 2022 were single-mother families. Families in situations of residential exclusionThe report, presented this Wednesday in Palma to mark the organization's tenth anniversary, reveals that families from South America represent 68.1% of the total and constitute the group most affected by housing exclusion in the Balearic Islands. The document is based on an analysis of the records of the Es Convent reception service, which assisted a total of 1,343 people from 436 families. Of those assisted, 58.4% were women and 41.5% were men. Regarding family roles, the mother stands out, representing 30.3% of the total, followed by sons (27.2%), daughters (26.4%), fathers (13.6%), and grandmothers (2.1%).

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Those under 18 are the segment most at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the Balearic Islands, with 23% affected in 2024, according to the EAPN's 2025 State of Poverty Report. Despite this high figure, it represents a 10-point drop compared to 2023. On a global scale, the at-risk-of-poverty and social exclusion (AROPE) rate has reached its lowest levels in recent years, standing at 16.2%, and for the first time since 2020 below the target set for this year, 6.6. Nearly 200,000 people are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Extreme material deprivation has also decreased by two points and affects those unable to cope with unforeseen events (30%) and those unable to make ends meet (40%), among other situations. All this, at a time when the Balearic Islands have had practically full employment figures for years. Now, with precarious jobs and low wages.

]]> A recent book worth reading is Poverty Made in the USA, by American sociologist Matthew Desmond (Capitán Swing, 2024). It paints a well-documented portrait of the problem of poverty in the richest country in the world and proposes some quite imaginative possible solutions, although not always applicable to other places. But, in my opinion, the book's great virtue is its successful attempt to give visibility to a group as numerous as it is hidden: the poor.

]]> It's not a bad thing that some people are rich, especially if their fortune has been hard-earned, legally, or even inherited. None of these circumstances is a crime or an issue that should provoke rejection. The fact that some people have quite a bit or much more than others is not essentially negative. The point is that there are minimum standards that guarantee a decent life for everyone in society, that what is known as the social elevator works.

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