One in five people in Lithuania were at risk of poverty last year, according to data from the Lithuanian Statistics Department.
In 2021, the at-risk-of-poverty rate in Lithuania was 20 percent, according to Inga Masiulaitytė-Šukevič, Deputy Director of the Lithuanian Statistics Department.
“Compared to 2020, the at-risk-of-poverty rate has decreased by 0.9 percent and by 2.9 percent over four years,” she said.
Last year, the poverty risk threshold was 483 euros per month for a single person and 1,015 euros for a family of two adults and two children under 14.
The at-risk-of-poverty rate was 17.4 percent in urban areas and 25.4 percent in rural areas. The highest at-risk-of-poverty rate was recorded in the 65+ age group, at almost 36 percent.
“The average old-age pension has been below the poverty risk threshold for several years,” Masiulaitytė-Šukevič said.
The highest poverty risk level was found in households consisting of a single mother or a single father with children, at least one of whom was under 25 years old. Among those employed, 7.5 percent were below the poverty risk threshold, compared to 50 percent of those unemployed.
According to Masiulaitytė-Šukevič, the absolute poverty rate in the country was almost 4 percent.
Moreover, 36.4 percent of the population lived in households that would not be able to meet the 380-euro contingency from their own resources. Around 9 percent of households were unable to eat meat, fish, or equivalent vegetarian food at least every other day. Also, 33.5 percent of households could not spend at least one week of their holidays away from home.
“Children at risk of poverty were not only forced to restrict their leisure needs due to lack of funds but were also undernourished, and a large proportion had to make do with second-hand clothes,” Masiulaitytė-Šukevič said.
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