---
title: "Over one fifth of Estonian residents live at risk of poverty"
id: "32791"
type: "post"
slug: "over-one-fifth-of-estonian-residents-live-at-risk-of-poverty"
published_at: "2018-12-19T02:09:07+00:00"
modified_at: "2018-12-19T02:09:07+00:00"
url: "https://estonianworld.com/life/over-one-fifth-of-estonian-residents-live-at-risk-of-poverty/"
markdown_url: "https://estonianworld.com/life/over-one-fifth-of-estonian-residents-live-at-risk-of-poverty.md"
excerpt: "According to Estonia’s official statistics agency, 22.6% of the Estonian population lived at risk of poverty in 2017; the number increased compared with the previous […]"
taxonomy_category:
  - "Life"
taxonomy_post_format:
  - ""
publisher: "Estonian World"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Silver Tambur"
author_url: "https://estonianworld.com/author/silver/"
---

# Over one fifth of Estonian residents live at risk of poverty

![Image](https://estonianworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Soviet-era-apartment-building-in-Tallinn-Ralf-Roletschek.jpg)

By  [Silver Tambur](https://estonianworld.com/author/silver/)
  ·  December 19, 2018  · [Life](https://estonianworld.com/category/life/)
 · 2 minutes of reading

### **According to Estonia’s official statistics agency, 22.6% of the Estonian population lived at risk of poverty in 2017; the number increased compared with the previous year.**

According to Statistics Estonia, 295,000 Estonian residents lived at risk of poverty last year – a 1.6 percentage points increase compared with 2016. In 2017, a person was at risk of poverty if their monthly disposable income was less than €523 (€469 in 2016) and in absolute poverty if the monthly disposable income was smaller than €207 (€200 in 2016).

In 2017, 3.4% of the Estonian population – 44,000 people – were living in absolute poverty, which is 0.2 percentage points more than in 2016.

State benefits and pensions helped prevent falling into poverty – had they not been included in income, 38.5% of the population would have been at risk of poverty (39.2% a year before) and 22.8% in absolute poverty (24.6% a year before).

Compared with 2016, the at-risk-of-poverty rate has decreased both among children and among young people but has increased among older people. In 2017, 47.5% of persons aged 65 and over were living at risk of poverty (41.2% in 2016). Among children under 18, the at-risk-of-poverty rate was 15.9%, 0.6 percentage points lower than in the previous year. The absolute poverty rate of children fell as well – from 3.5% in 2016 to 3.2% in 2017.

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Cover: Not everyone can afford a fancy living in Estonia. A Soviet-era apartment building in Tallinn (the image is illustrative/courtesy of Ralf Roletschek/Wikimedia Commons).

## 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)
.