Rosstat presented data on the number of Russians living below the poverty line, based on a new calculation method. According to new data, according to the results of the third quarter, the number of Russians living below the poverty line amounted to 16 million people (11% of the population), which is 2.8 million people less than in the second quarter. According to the results of nine months of 2021, 12.1% of the population, or 17.6 million people, were outside the poverty line in Russia.
Rosstat tied the poverty line in January-September to income of 12,770 rubles. per month for the working-age population, 9727 rubles. for pensioners and 11 591 rubles. for kids.
Rosstat has been estimating the number of people with money incomes below the established poverty line since 1992. Until November 2021, the indicator of the subsistence minimum was used as a criterion for the poverty line, based on the value of the consumer basket at the relevant point in time, as well as mandatory payments and fees.
On November 26, 2021, a government decree was adopted “On Approving the Rules for Determining Poverty Boundaries in General for the RF and for Subjects of the RF, Used in Estimates of the Poverty Level Indicators”, according to which the poverty line is calculated in a new way: the subsistence minimum was calculated as 44, 2% of the median income for the relevant time period and is used to assign social benefits and other support measures. To estimate the number of poor citizens, the government decided to continue to use the value of the poverty line based on the cost of the consumer basket, adjusted for inflation.
Rosstat reported that the number of Russians abroad in poverty has been declining since the beginning of the year, based on a new assessment methodology. In the first quarter, according to preliminary estimates of the department, there were 20.8 million people, or 14.2% of the population, in the second quarter – 18.2 million people, which corresponds to 12.5% of the population, in the third quarter – 16 million people.
According to the old calculation method, in the first quarter of 2021, the population below the poverty line was 14.4% of the total number of Russians, in the second – 12.1%.
Rosstat previously recorded an increase in average per capita nominal cash income. In the third quarter, they increased by 15.5% to 40,402 rubles. The department attributed this to the recovery of economic activity, as well as an increase in social benefits. According to the statistics department, in just nine months of 2021, 10.5 trillion rubles were spent on social benefits. The share of social payments in the structure of household income increased by 1 percentage point – from 22.15 to 23.1%, and in monetary terms increased by 704.5 billion rubles. – from 3.4 trillion rubles. in the III quarter of 2020 up to 4.1 trillion rubles. in the III quarter of 2021
The recovery in economic activity also affected the labor market: the number of employed people in the third quarter of 2021 increased by 2.6% and amounted to 72.2 million people, the unemployment rate decreased by 1.9 p.p. – from 6.3 to 4. ,4%. At the same time, the average nominal accrued salary in the third quarter of 2021 amounted to 54,133 rubles, having increased by 9% compared to the same period last year. The department also recorded an increase in the share of income from entrepreneurial or industrial activities: their growth in the structure of income amounted to 0.5 pp – up to 5.9%, or more than 1 trillion rubles. at the end of the III quarter of 2021
In July 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin set a goal for the government to reduce the level of poverty in the country by half by 2030 compared to 2017. Earlier, the target was set by the President by 2024. According to Rosstat, the number of Russians whose incomes are lower the subsistence level, in 2017 amounted to 18.9 million, or 12.9% of the population. By 2030, on behalf of the President of Russia, the number of the poor in the country should decrease to 6.5%, that is, to 9.5 million.
.