The Directorate for Statistics (Monstat) published the Survey on Income and Living Conditions, according to which 15,1 percent of people live in households that struggle to make ends meet.
The possibility of making ends meet, as an indicator of subjective poverty, shows that in 2023, 0,8 percent of people live in households that stated that they very simply make ends meet.
Also, the data from the survey show that the largest percentage of people, 58,2 percent of them, live in households that stated that they cannot afford a week of annual vacation outside the home, while the smallest percentage of them (11,3 percent) live in households that stated that they cannot afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish (or the vegetarian equivalent) every other day.
The survey on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) is an annual survey that Monstat has been conducting regularly since 2013. The data collected by this survey, they explained, represent the basis for calculating indicators of poverty and social exclusion for Montenegro. "The indicators are based on the concept of relative poverty, which takes into account disposable household income, the number of members in the household (household size) and the distribution of income within the population. The EU-SILC survey is, at the EU level, a mandatory source for monitoring income, poverty and social statistics exclusions, in order to provide comparable data for each country separately and at the level of the EU as a whole," states Monstat.
The indicators of poverty and social exclusion in the announcement were calculated on the basis of data obtained from a survey conducted in 2023. The reference period to which the data refers is different and depends on the type of data collected, so the reference period for income data is the previous calendar year, that is, 2022, and for data on material deprivation, the moment of the survey, that is, 2023.
The poverty risk rate in 2023 was 20,1 percent, which shows the percentage of people whose equivalent disposable income is below the poverty risk threshold.
"These persons are not necessarily poor, they just have a higher risk of being poor, because their equivalent disposable income is below the poverty risk threshold. A comparison of the basic poverty risk rate and the poverty risk rate before the inclusion of social transfers, in 2023, shows that Excluding social transfers from income increases the percentage of people at risk of poverty from the basic 20,1% to 28,4%. If social transfers and pensions are excluded from income, then the poverty risk rate is 40,9%." , writes Monstat.
The rate of risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE), as a percentage of people who are at risk of poverty and/or are extremely materially and socially deprived and/or live in households with very low work intensity, was 2023 percent in 31.
The rate of severe material and social deprivation in 2023 was 12,3 percent and shows the percentage of people living in households that cannot afford at least seven of the 13 items of material deprivation.
The poverty risk threshold, set at 60 percent of the mean value (median) of the national equivalent disposable income, in 2023 at the annual level was 3.367 euros for a single-person household, while for a household with two adults and two children under 14 years of age it was 7.070 euros.
The relative poverty risk gap represents the difference between the poverty risk threshold and the median equivalent income of persons below the poverty risk threshold, and in 2023 it amounted to 28 percent.
The quintile ratio (S80/S20) was 2023 in 5,1, which shows that the 20 percent of the population with the highest income (fifth quintile) earned five times more than the 20 percent of the population with the lowest income (first quintile), according to Monstat.
The Gini coefficient as an indicator of income inequality (on a scale from 0 – complete equality to 100 – complete inequality) was 2023 in 29,4.
According to the type of household, in 2023, the highest rate of risk of poverty was for persons in households consisting of one adult with at least one dependent child (44,7 percent), followed by persons in households consisting of two adults with three or more dependent children ( 36,5 percent).
Observed by age, in 2023, persons under the age of 18 were most exposed to the risk of poverty (27,3 percent), as well as persons aged 18 to 24 (24,4 percent). People aged 65 and over had the lowest rate of poverty risk (13,8 percent).
In 2023, the poverty risk rate for men was 20,2 percent, and for women 19,9 percent.
Depending on the most common activity status, among persons aged 18 and over, in 2023, persons employed by an employer had the lowest risk of poverty (five percent), while the unemployed were most exposed to the risk of poverty (40,6 percent).
In 2023, 34,2 percent of residents from the north were exposed to the risk of poverty, while residents of the southern region had the lowest risk of poverty at 11,6 percent.
2023 percent of the inhabitants of rural areas were exposed to the risk of poverty in 27,5. The poverty risk rate in the metropolitan area was 15,9 percent in 2023.
Data from the survey for 2023 show that 27,3 percent of children under the age of 17 were at risk of poverty.
The percentage of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion is an indicator of how many children are at risk of poverty and/or extremely materially and socially deprived, and/or live in households with very low work intensity. In 2023, this indicator was 38,2 percent.
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