The Russian authorities have been making steady progress in bringing down the number of people with incomes below the official subsistence minimum. They have done so through cash benefits, allowances and top-ups as well as by keeping the subsistence minimum artificially low. However, this statistical reduction in poverty has done little to address a large group of people who have remained trapped for years in what researchers describe as persistent poverty. Economists note that victims of persistent poverty often fall outside the official income-based poverty statistics. A life of prolonged deprivation makes it impossible to access medical care, eat properly or childcare. Those trapped in persistent poverty feel completely powerless to change anything, suffering from a lack of rights and a deep sense of helplessness. According to sociologists, the number of people living in persistent poverty in Russia could reach 5 million.
According to the latest data from Rosstat, Russia’s poverty rate stood at 7.7 % in 2026. This means that more than 11 million people had per capita incomes below the official subsistence minimum at the beginning of the year, which the government set at an average of RUB 17,600 per month. Last year, Rosstat estimated the income-based poverty rate at 6.7 % of the population. The income-based poverty rate is highly seasonal, peaking at the beginning of the year and reaching its lowest point in the final quarter because of year-end bonus payments. Under his May 2024 decree, President Vladimir Putin set the government the task of reducing the income-based poverty rate to below 7 % by 2030 and below 5 % by 2036.
To reduce income-based poverty, the authorities rely on a range of benefits and top-ups. Old-age pensioners receive regular top-ups that ensure their pensions are at least equal to the regional subsistence minimum. Around 2 million families with disabled dependents receive social payments, while about 650,000 people receive family support benefits. These budget-funded payments have helped steadily reduce the officially recorded number of people living below the poverty line.
Yet the reality of poverty in Russia cannot be captured by a single indicator measuring the number of people whose incomes fall below the official threshold. Surveys suggest that several million Russians live in chronic or persistent poverty, with little hope of escaping through government benefits or top-ups. Working-age adults, in particular, are generally not entitled to such supplementary payments.
Many low-income people in Russia continue to maintain a socially accepted standard of living. Others, however, are not officially classified as poor yet are unable to sustain even a minimally acceptable standard of living, according to Yekaterina Slobodenyuk of the Higher School of Economics. She argues that prolonged deprivation creates not only severe poverty but also a distinct social group characterised by persistent poverty.
‘Living in such harsh conditions forces members of this group to adapt old ways and develop new ones of meeting their basic social and physical needs,’ Slobodenyuk says.
Researchers typically define chronic and persistent poverty through multiple forms of deprivation, including the lack of home ownership, giving up purchases of meat, fish and fruit, as well as durable goods and new clothing. People living in chronic poverty often do not receive adequate outpatient care, cannot afford essential medicines or pay for dental treatment. Members of the persistent poverty group describe their households as destitute and report feeling incapable of changing their situation, while experiencing a complete lack of rights and a deep sense of helplessness.
Households in persistent poverty often cope more effectively when several generations live together under one roof, most commonly in rural houses.
People experiencing persistent poverty are also less likely to register marriages formally and often withdraw from the labour market altogether. Slobodenyuk attributes this to weak labour market competitiveness, limited human development and regional labour market conditions.
Contrary to common belief, persistent poverty includes relatively few families with children or single pensioners. Those affected often have lifestyles that differ markedly from the rest of the population, reflected, for example, in patterns of alcohol consumption or the reliance of employable adults on the pension income of their relatives.
Slobodenyuk identifies four levels of poverty: temporary poverty, risk zone for chronic poverty, chronic poverty and persistent poverty itself. Households that stay poor for longer periods typically contain a high proportion of children. Persistent poverty, however, breaks this pattern: despite relatively large household sizes, the share of children is very small.
Survey data indicate that persistent poverty is concentrated mainly among middle-aged people, with relatively few pensioners or children. In other words, those trapped in persistent poverty are predominantly of working age. Families with children are becoming increasingly uncommon within this group.
Persistent poverty in Russia is not primarily driven by the difficulties of raising large numbers of children or elderly care. Rather, it reflects a particular way of life, characterised by high levels of unemployment, unskilled work and undereducation, researchers say.
‘The geography of poverty shows a clear trend: all the most disadvantaged groups are increasingly concentrated in rural areas, and persistent poverty has shifted most strongly to the countryside,’ the experts write.
Based on surveys conducted as part of the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE), sociologists estimate that around 24 % of respondents have never been classified as poor over the entire observation period. A further 17 % experienced poverty only temporarily, on a single occasion. This means that 42 % of the country’s population can be considered non-poor.
In late July, Labour and Social Protection Minister Anton Kotyakov announced that Russia’s poverty rate now stood at 6.7 %.
‘The introduction of a unified benefit, backed by substantial funding, has made it possible to significantly reduce poverty in our country. Indeed, the 6.7 % we see today is the direct result of this support measure,’ Kotyakov said.
President Vladimir Putin stated that the country faces ‘ambitious long-term goals in improving people’s well-being, expanding opportunities for self-fulfilment for every individual, and cutting poverty’.
ORIGINAL: NG/Benefits and Top-Ups Fail to Overcome Persistent Poverty
