Rosstat called every tenth Russian poor: threshold named

According to Rosstat, the number of poor Russians in the third quarter of 2023 decreased to 14.8 million people. The agency reports that the number of citizens with incomes below the poverty line is 10.2% of the total population. Despite the fact that the poverty line itself this year has increased from 13,472 rubles last year to 14,201 rubles this year. Thus, the poverty curve began to decline.

During the period July–September 2023, about half a million people were “removed” from those living below the poverty line (that is, moved to another, more prestigious social status). In the spring, Rosstat reported that poverty in Russia had dropped to a historical low of 10.5 percent. The number of citizens with income below the poverty line at that time was 15.3 million. A year earlier, the figure was 16 million people.

Well, how can one rejoice at social success here? After all, our country, until relatively recently, has known much more turbulent times, let’s say. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the army of the poor generally exceeded 42 million people.

“The reduction in poverty was influenced by the implementation of targeted social programs,” notes Rosstat, “aimed at the most vulnerable groups of the population, as well as by the growth of wages and pensions.”

To be fair, it should be added that the decline in this indicator may have been even more strongly influenced by the personal instructions of the president, who at the first government meeting in 2023 called on the cabinet to “overcome poverty” and called this task a priority.

An important step in this direction was taken at the beginning of this year, when the minimum wage in the country increased to 16,242 rubles. And the cost of living rose by 13.5% and is 14,375 rubles. It would seem, where do the poor come from if the minimum wage is higher than the subsistence level? In any case, no one can earn less than the minimum wage and be below the poverty line!

Nevertheless, the army of the poor in the country numbers in the millions and, from the view of the average person, if it decreases, it is not noticeable. That is why a number of experts do not rule out some manipulations by the statistical agency with the cut-off line that determines the poverty line, that is, the subsistence level.

Let us recall that analysts from the Research Institute of the Ministry of Labor assess poverty as the inability to receive a salary that would provide a living wage for each member of the worker’s family. The reason for this trend is the high proportion of low-paid vacancies in the regions, insufficient wage levels, and part-time and unstable forms of employment.

At first glance, today the situation has changed radically.

“First of all, this is due to the ongoing special military operation,” says former Deputy Minister of Labor of the Russian Federation, trade unionist Pavel Kudyukin. – Where, for various reasons, volunteers are willing to go, mainly from not the richest segments of the population. In fact, the payments that the state guarantees to them in the NWO zone significantly increase their previous income at their place of residence. Here we must add an increase in wages in the national economy as a whole due to the labor shortage. This also applies to depressed regions where industry has started working and has revived – both because of sanctions, and because of the massive departure of Western companies, and as a result of orders from the military-industrial complex. The state’s social policy also affects the incomes of our fellow citizens. Although it must be said that inflation “eats up” a significant part of such payments. Especially, by the way, vulnerable segments of the population. And especially in terms of food and medicine. Real inflation for these groups of goods is significantly higher than what Rosstat shows us.

– According to statistics, it turns out that every 10th Russian lives below the poverty line. Is this a large number when compared with other countries?

– It depends on which ones. If we take states comparable to the level of development of today’s Russia, then against this background we look quite decent.

Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Alexey Zubets, commenting on the latest Rosstat data on poverty, noted the increased benefits for the most vulnerable segments of the population.

– They are indexed to inflation and higher, thereby exceeding the cost of living. As a result, there are fewer poor people: everything is logical.

– However, at the everyday level this is somehow not felt. There is no feeling of a massive rise in prosperity in the country…

– About half of the country’s population lives on the verge of slipping into the ranks of the poor. That is, according to statistics, they seem to live “above the line,” but not much higher, and if something happens (say, some kind of surge in inflation), they can immediately slide into the category of the poor. Unfortunately, this figure has remained at approximately the same level for several years.