Armenia - Poverty and wealth

Officially, 45 percent of the population is considered to be poor, but unofficial estimates place the figure as high as 55 percent. Although poverty is mostly urban (59 percent), the incidence of extreme poverty is higher in rural than in urban areas. Rural poverty is expected to worsen as a result of people leaving rural areas for the

cities. State expenditures on social infrastructure and product subsidies dropped drastically following independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, thus hurting the ability of the poor to meet basic needs. Since people make very low wages, food comprises about 67 percent of household expenditures. In 1996, the Ministry of Statistics and the World Bank found that the poor represented 55 percent of the total population, while the extremely poor constituted 28 percent. The only good news is that there has been a significant decrease in the proportion of the extremely poor, which is probably due to programs designed to help this sector.

Out of 580,000 pensioners (retired people receiving pensions) in Armenia, 223,000 are old age or retired pensioners, of which 186,402 are identified as needy and included in the system of family allowances. Pensions remain exceedingly low, with the average monthly pension worth US$7.5 and average family allowance at US$12. Without assistance from their families, many pensioners would face the most severe poverty.