---
title: "Every fifth person in Estonia lives in relative poverty"
id: "27213"
type: "post"
slug: "every-fifth-person-lives-in-relative-poverty"
published_at: "2017-12-18T17:41:11+00:00"
modified_at: "2019-01-28T14:51:19+00:00"
url: "https://estonianworld.com/life/every-fifth-person-lives-in-relative-poverty/"
markdown_url: "https://estonianworld.com/life/every-fifth-person-lives-in-relative-poverty.md"
excerpt: "While Estonia has made respectable progress over the years, a quarter of a million people are still relatively poor. According to Statistics Estonia, 21.1% of the […]"
taxonomy_category:
  - "Life"
taxonomy_post_format:
  - ""
publisher: "Estonian World"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Silver Tambur"
author_url: "https://estonianworld.com/author/silver/"
---

# Every fifth person in Estonia lives in relative poverty

![Image](https://estonianworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/mosse-haavas-1024x700-1-e1513621530564-1024x601.jpg)

By  [Silver Tambur](https://estonianworld.com/author/silver/)
  ·  December 18, 2017  · [Life](https://estonianworld.com/category/life/)
 · 1 minute of reading

### **While Estonia has made respectable progress over the years, a quarter of a million people are still relatively poor***.*

According to Statistics Estonia, 21.1% of the Estonian population – nearly 276,000 people – lived in relative poverty in 2016. The number dropped slightly, however – by 0.6% compared with the previous year.

Had it not been for the state benefits and pensions, almost 40% (39.2%) of the population would have lived in relative poverty.

In Estonia, a person is considered to live in relative poverty if their monthly disposable income is below €468 (as of 2016).

Compared with 2015, the relative poverty of children, young and middle-aged people decreased, but it increased in the case of the elderly. A whopping 41.8% of people aged 65 and over lived in relative poverty.

The statistics clearly proves that a higher level of education is an important prerequisite for the prevention of poverty. The relative poverty rate of people with higher education was 13%, while among those with basic education or lower the rate was 36.7%.

I

The cover image (Vaksali, Tartu) is illustrative (image by Tõnu Runnel).

## About The Author

![Avatar photo](https://estonianworld.com/wp-content/uploads/local-avatars/2/1572652467-bpfull-100x100.jpg)

[Silver Tambur](https://estonianworld.com/author/silver/)
Silver Tambur, co-founder and publisher of *Estonian World*, studied journalism at the University of Tartu and politics at Birkbeck, University of London. He has edited Estonian Public Broadcasting’s English news and contributed to *Business Sense*, *Deutsche Welle*, and *Radio New Zealand*. He is currently editor-in-chief of *Trialoog*, TalTech’s business and research portal. You can also follow him on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/SilverTambur)
 and like [his page on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/silvertamburpage/)
. You can write to Silver at [silver@estonianworld.com](mailto:silver@estonianworld.com)
.