Almost a third of the people of Olteni live below the poverty line. “Anyone can become poor for a longer or shorter period,” says Statistica

After years of solid economic growth, Romania managed to reduce the relative poverty rate to 19% in 2024, the lowest level in the last decade, according to Statistics data, published on Friday. However, more than 3.6 million Romanians still live below the poverty line, and the differences between regions and social categories remain huge.

Here are the main 6 conclusions of the Statistics research

1. Poverty is decreasing, but not disappearing

Economic progress has led to a decrease in the poverty rate by more than three percentage points compared to 2021, the document shows. However, the effects of inflation and the rising cost of living keep pressure on low-income families.

Theoretically, under certain socio-economic conditions, the document shows, any person can become poor for a longer or shorter period of time. For some, the risk of falling into poverty is always high and almost inevitable. It is about people whose physical, mental, educational, occupational characteristics, etc. they make it difficult for them to access the welfare levels offered by society and make them vulnerable to the phenomenon of poverty. To these are added, of course, the poor, that is, people affected by some changes likely to influence the labor market or the general development of society at a given time, writes the INS in its research published on Friday.

2. Romania, divided in two

The regional disparities are dramatic: in Southwest Oltenia, almost 30% of the population lives below the poverty line, while in Bucharest-Ilfov the percentage is only 3.7%. The difference is almost 8 times, signaling a persistent rift between the capital and the rest of the country.

3. Children and young people – the first victims

Younger generations are the most vulnerable: a quarter of children under 18 and over 22% of 18-24 year olds are at risk of poverty. The report warns that educational gaps and lack of opportunities on the labor market can perpetuate the cycle of poverty, says INS..

4. Poverty among working people persists

Although the number of employees has increased, more than 10% of wage earners continue to live below the poverty line—a problem accentuated in agriculture and self-employment. Likewise, single people aged up to 65 have a poverty rate of 17.0%, while those aged 65 and over are poor in proportion to 25.4%, the INS also shows. Families made up of single female persons have a higher share of 6.8 percentage points compared to the share of people living in households made up of a single male person (24.4% compared to 17.6%), the document also notes.

5. Large and single-parent families, the most affected

Almost half of the families with three or more children live are affected by the phenomenon of poverty. “In 2024, among households with dependent children, the most affected by poverty were households consisting of 2 adults with 3 or more dependent children (48.8%), followed by single-parent families, a single parent with at least one dependent child (30.2%) and households consisting of 3 or more adults with dependent children (27.1%),” the Statistics research shows.

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6. Social benefits make a difference

Social transfers — especially pensions and allowances — almost halve the risk of poverty. Without these payments, more than 40% of the population would live below the poverty line. The efficiency of the social protection system is, however, uneven: it strongly supports the elderly, but not enough for active families with children.

“In the theoretical case, in which incomes would include pensions, but not the other types of transfers, the situation would somehow improve in the sense that the proportion of poor people would drop to around 23.4% of the population. It is obvious that pensions determine the greatest “exit” from the presumptive state of poverty for elderly people aged 65 and over (61.3% of them), but also the lowest in the case of children and young people up to 18 years old.

All these observations are also characteristic of the previous years, which reinforces the belief that social transfers are of particular importance for the population's standard of living”, says Statistica.

Short conclusion

Romania has made notable progress in reducing poverty, but success remains fragile. Poor regions, large families and young people continue to live on the edge of economic exclusion.