More than 22% of Bulgarians live below the poverty threshold

The 2010 poverty threshold was estimated at BGN 283.75 a month on average for the support of a single household member. According to this level, 1,673,500 people, or 22.3% of the country’s population, live in poverty, showed the final results of a survey the National Statistics Institute carried out in 2011. Compared to the previous year, the poverty line fell 3.8%, while the relative share of the poor rose by 1.6 percentage points.     

The social safety net plays a significant part in helping to contain poverty. Counting pensions as part of the household income, but excluding all other social transfers, the share of the population living in poverty is 27.1%, or 4.8% higher, data for 2010 showed. Excluding pensions and all social transfers, the poverty threshold increases to 41.5%, or by 19 percentage points. 

For most of the population, the main factor behind the risk of falling into the category of the poor is economic activity and participation in the labour market. For the period for which the latest data is available, the relative share of the poor is the highest among the unemployed and pensioners. The largest annual increase in the risk of poverty for 2010 has been among the ranks of the unemployed – 3.9 percentage points, and the category of people with no economic activity – 3.4 percentage points. For pensioners, the risk of poverty actually decreased by 1.7 percentage points from the previous year. Blagoevgrad area enjoys the lowest poverty rate (14.4%). At the opposite end of the spectrum is Vidin area with 36.2%.   

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