Poverty in numbers

According to UN data, wealth of 250 trillion dollars is produced, the half of which belongs to 1% of people, and the other half – to 99%. OXFAM’s report says that the wealth of 85 richest people of the world is as much as that of 3, 5 billion poorest people.

According to official statistics, one third of population in Armenia, or more than 900 thousand people are poor. More than 400 thousand of them are very poor, and more than 80 thousand people are in extreme poverty. According to unofficial estimates, the level of poverty in Armenia is higher.

Who are considered as poor?

In 2013, the poor were defined as those, whose consumption per adult was lower than upper poverty line – 39 193 AMD. More poor were defined as those whose consumption per adult the lower poverty line – 32 318 AMD.  The extreme poor were defined as those, whose consumption per adult was lower than food poverty line – which in 2013 amounted to 22 993 AMD.

The poor get poorer, the rich get richer

The calculations show that in conditions of economic growth the poor get benefit but now as much as the rich, and during the world economic crisis (2009-2010), when the economy was in decline, poor people suffer more than rich people, and even in times of crisis, rich people continue to get rich.

According to data of 2013, Armenia will need 83,9 billion AMD for overcoming poverty, which is 2,0% of GDP, in addition to the amount which has already been provided for social support, assuming that it will be first provided to only poor.

Full text in Armenian