We present the report "FROM 2020 TO 2023: CLOSING THE CIRCLE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN ANDORRA"

• The second report is presented on how Covid-19 has affected Andorra and what the evolution has been in the last three years.
• With the coordination of the Sociology Group of the ARI, Marta Alberch, the author has focused on different areas and has worked with more than a hundred indicators to make an analysis of the current situation to compare it with the prepandemic year.
• This work was started in 2021 by Reig Fundació's concern to find out objectively how the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic had affected the present and future of the working class in Andorra.

Sant Julià de Lòria, February 6, 2024. The Andorra Research and Innovation study "FROM 2020 TO 2023: CLOSING THE CIRCLE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN ANDORRA" was presented today. The author is Marta Alberch Terrés, founder and director of Andtropia and it has been coordinated by Joan Mico, Director of the Sociology Group of the ARI.

As Joan Mico declares, "the objectives of this work are to evaluate how the risks of social exclusion, vulnerability and poverty were affected by the crisis and the pandemic in Andorra, to know what the social aspects and of rights that were most affected (education, health, food, protection...), and analyze how these aspects are currently."

As the author explains, in this report, three years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we wanted to collect what the situation is in March 2023 compared to that month of March 2020 where everything it began. And why after three years? Because according to experts and historically, this is the period that a specific crisis is considered finished and that the evolution of society in all its aspects may no longer be affected by the pandemic but by other factors that influence it.

Taking as a starting point the study "LA COVID IN ANDORRA - ITS IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY OF THE WORKING CLASS" by Reig Fundació, presented in January 2022, in this edition an attempt has been made to take a picture of the situation socio-economic, labor, educational and health in March 2023 and respond to the hypotheses that were raised after the first months of the pandemic.

As a general conclusion, it can be stated that pre-pandemic levels and figures have been recovered both at the macroeconomic level and at the labor level and also at the educational level. At a demographic level, growth is surpassing pre-pandemic levels, especially due to the arrival of new residents, but it cannot be directly related to the end of the Covid-19 crisis (despite the global trend that workers no longer need to be physically at their place of work) and that there are other challenges such as access to housing or the sufficiency of resources. Where the concern is most obvious and it is not clear that the recovery has been the same for everyone, is, firstly at the social level, where no data on poverty has been published, for example, in the last two years and it becomes difficult to diagnosis of the current situation, and second at the health level, especially the effects and consequences that the crisis and the measures that had to be applied to slow its expansion are having on mental health, mainly in teenagers .

We attach a summary of the main conclusions of each section.

Finally, the authors would like to thank the collaboration of all the administrations, entities and people who participated and made this study possible.

You can download here thefull study i the presentation

APPENDIX: MAIN CONCLUSIONS

In summary, and for the six sections included in the study, the most outstanding points are those collected below.

In the demographic field, although population growth in 2020 was only 1.3%, lower than in previous years, it has suffered a rebound effect that is making growth in the year 2022 is double, 2.6% and in 2023 4.4% and above the 2% on average in the pre-pandemic years. This increase has also been noticed in the temporary population that if in the 2020-2021 season they had dropped by 74.4%, the following seasons have grown exponentially with a 247.9% and a 47.2%, respectively.

As for births, they continue to fall and the historical trend that after a crisis, the birth rate increases is not fulfilled. Regarding deaths, despite the drastic decrease in deaths caused by Covid-19, an excess of deaths is still detected above the average of the pre-pandemic years. Marriages and divorces and separations increased in 2021 but have returned to pre-2020 levels.

In the economic field, and starting with the macroeconomic data, it can be stated that the recovery of the GDP has been very fast and above the countries around us and the averages of the Euro zone and the world, surely favored by the return to the normality of the tourism sector and the growth of the construction sector. This has, however, been accompanied by a period with very high inflation, especially of basic groups such as food, also above neighboring countries and forecasts, which is causing a considerable increase in the cost of living, with consequences in the family economy, in particular for those in a vulnerable situation.

With reference to the tourism sector, 2.3% more visitor arrivals were received in 2022 compared to 2019, with an increase in tourists, who stay overnight, and which is assumed to have a more important economic impact on the country.

Some indicators on the family economy, with data from 2021, show us that although family spending per household is above that of 2019 and 2020, if inflation is discounted it would be below, which would mean that the families, on average, cannot spend as much as before the pandemic. By expenditure group, that of Housing, water, gas, electricity and other fuels has gone from representing 38.7% in 2019 to 40.5% in 2021 for families in the bottom quintile. And we are starting to detect a slight upward trend in payment defaults on loans granted to households and individuals that will need to be followed in case it is a consequence of job insecurity or the increase in basic family expenses.

In addition, it is confirmed that the average rental price that increased by 12.8% from 2022 to 2023, does so above wages: the minimum rose by 11.1%, the median, by 9.0% and the average, a 7.6%. And it has also increased the pressure on families who are paying a mortgage: the average fee has increased by 24.0% from one year to the next due to the upward evolution of interest rates to try curb inflation.

In the labor field, the new figure of Temporary Suspension of the Employment Contract was key to cushioning the effects that the measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 could have caused in the country's labor fabric. STCTs started in May 2020 and ran until February 2022 (albeit with very low numbers below 80 since July 2021).

At the level of employees, despite the decreases in the months following the start of the pandemic and ups and downs depending on the measures applicable at any given time, the trend has been upward and the highest figures have been reached with 6.5% more wage earners between March 2020 and 2023. And in terms of wages, the minimum has increased by 18.7% from 2020 to 2023, the median, 14.2% from March from 2020 to the same month of 2023 and the average, a 17.1% the same period. In March 2023, 37.2% of salaried people are above the average wage and the rest, 62.8%, would be paid below, although this situation has improved compared to 2020 because now there are no longer people in STCT. Classified by quintiles, 55.1% of the workers are in the lower quintiles I, II and III and the rest in the two upper quintiles and it is noteworthy, however, that the wage earners in quintile I represented 7.0% in 2020 and March of 2023, they would represent 7.5%, which would be 36% and 3.9%, respectively, on the registered population. These figures would indicate a possible increase in precariousness.

This 2023 is at the lowest levels of people receiving involuntary unemployment benefit (with only 16 benefits in March 2023) standing at historic lows. Job seekers have had the same evolution, being below the pre-pandemic figures. On the other hand, the offered positions are well above the number of the month of March 2020, from 812 to 1,630 from March 2020 to March 2023, but it is noteworthy that the most offered jobs are those with the most precarious and with the salaries usually lower means.

In the field of health, and once the end of the health emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is decreed (on May 5, 2023 by the ONS and on October 18, 2023 by of the Government of Andorra), it should be mentioned that the care, surgical and medical activity of the hospital has returned to pre-pandemic levels without observing significant changes. Where significant effects have been noticed and where resources will need to be invested, is in mental health. Visits and adolescents treated at mental health services have increased exponentially and professionals in this service already attribute this to the consequences of the pandemic. And according to the ARI Observatory for the 1st semester of 2023, there has been an increase in the number of people who answer affirmatively to whether they are following psychological treatment, emphasizing that a 3.6% does it for addictive disorders (both substance and behavioral) when in 2021 it was 2.6% and would confirm the global trend that these disorders would increase after the pandemic. In addition, the total average family expenditure in the Alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics group, with data from 2021, had increased by 11.7%.

In the social field, a partial analysis has been carried out since the Living Conditions Surveys for 2021 and 2022 have not been published and this does not allow us to know what the real socio-economic situation is in Andorra for not having data on poverty or material deprivation, for example. Based on the 2018 and 2023 ARI Observatories, it is observed that there are more families who cannot keep their home at an adequate temperature and those who claim they cannot eat meat, chicken or fish every two days or incur an unforeseen expense. However, the situation is getting worse and much worse in some groups, especially among those who are out of work or unemployed. And taking into account the annual campaigns against energy insecurity, the groups that receive the 84% of the grants awarded correspond to single-person and single-parent families, demonstrating the vulnerability of these households.

On the other hand, point out that social assistance is increasing, which would indicate that more people need it. Although in 2022, in global terms, less is being awarded than in 2020 and 2021, years in which aid was strengthened due to the pandemic crisis, they are still higher than in 2019. Aid is particularly increasing for housing, solidarity pensions for the elderly and prepaid cards as well as those for people with disabilities. According to our estimates, 10.1% of the population could be receiving some kind of help.

In the educational field, note that the 2022-2023 school year was the one that marked the return to normality, without any of the restrictions that had been applied since the end of the 2019-2020 school year. There has not been a noteworthy variation in the total number of students in recent years, remaining around 11,000. The universities have seen an increase in their students due to the arrival in the country of new educational institutions but which focus their studies online and not face-to-face. At the level of studies in the health and well-being branch, there has not been an increase in students, rather the opposite, as had been assumed during the pandemic.

As for nursery schools and extracurricular activities organized by the Commons or AINA, they have also recovered both the places offered and the employment levels from before the pandemic and an increase in exemptions has been observed in the years 2021 and 2022 and with a start of reduction this 2023.

From a gender perspective, the gender component of deaths has been normalized, as Covid caused more deaths among men than among women. As for seasonal workers, if historically more men than women arrived, in a ratio of 55%/45%, the 2020-2021 season increased to 59% of men, although women in subsequent seasons have arrived in a higher percentage than men. 

In the labor field, the wage gap in the average wage remains high although it has narrowed very slightly to 22.8% in March 2023 compared to 23.5% in March 2020, although it varies greatly depending on the economic sector (from a 47% to a positive difference of 8%). When the increases in average wages are analyzed by sector and gender, those with the highest increases the difference continues to be in favor of men (with increases ranging from 35.9% to 15.4% towards 22.1% to 6.2% of women). In addition, of the wage earners who have joined the labor market since 2020, 42.1% are women and have lost weight over the total (from 48.5% in 2020 to 48.0% in 2023).

During the pandemic, women were the ones who requested the most benefits for involuntary unemployment, at 54.4%, but in March 2023, the beneficiaries are 56.3% men.