The households consisting of five and more persons face a poverty risk that is 2.2 times higher than in the case of households consisting of one person, show recent data published by the National Bureau of Statistics. The lowest poverty rate (10.2% in 2018) is recorded in the case of households formed of one member younger than 60, while the highest one (42.0%) in the case of households with three children and more. This group of households represents about 8% of the population.

The place of residence is an important factor in determining the population’s welfare. According to statistics, the rural population is exposed to a bigger poverty risk than the urban population. The poverty rate in rural areas in 2018 was 31.6%, as opposed to 10.6% in urban areas. A slight decrease was witnessed in rural and urban areas compared with 2017.

Poverty varies depending on the level of education of the household head. Respectively, the probability of being poor is lower in the case of households where the main supporter has a higher level of education. Each additional level of education means a decline in the poverty risk from 5.2% in the case of households whose chief has higher education to 48.5% for households where the head does not have studies.

The absolute poverty line in 2018 was 1,998.4 lei on average per person a month. The absolute poverty rate was 23.0%, a decrease of 4.7 percentage points on 2017. University professor Dorin Vaculovschi, who heads the Human Resources, Public Affairs and Communication Department of the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, stated for IPN that the revision of the methodology of calculating the poverty rate favored the building of a more real picture than the previous years.

Economic policy expert Veaceslav Ioniţă confirmed that the number of persons living below the poverty line has decreased. Currently, the real income of a Moldova is on average four times higher than 20 years ago. This means the purchasing power, payment capacity and access to goods and utilities have improved.