One in five Romanians affected by poverty, official statistics say

Almost one in five (19.8%) people in Romania were affected by severe material and social deprivation in 2023, according to the data published on Friday, June 28, by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

There were 3.97 million poor people in 2023, 59,000 less than in 2022, News.ro reported.

"21.1% of the resident population lived in a household whose income was lower than the threshold set at the level of 60% of the median available income per adult-equivalent. Almost 1 in 5 (19.8%) people were affected by severe material and social deprivation. 718,000 people up to 65 years of age (5.2%) lived in households with very low work intensity," INS data show.

Estimated on the basis of total available income, excluding consumption from own resources of the household, the relative poverty rate (AROP) was 21.1% in 2023, down by only 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous year.

(Photo source: Stanislau V/Dreamstime.com)