President of Russia Vladimir Putin said that Russia’s poverty rate has reached a record low.
Speaking at a meeting on economic issues, Vladimir Putin said that incomes among the country’s poorest citizens have grown at an accelerated pace in recent years, bringing Russia’s poverty rate to a record low.
He noted that in 2000, 42 million people lived below the subsistence minimum, while by the end of 2024 that number is expected to fall to just over 10 million, or 7.2% of the population. Vladimir Putin added that the government aims to reduce the poverty rate to below 7% by 2030 and to under 5% by 2036.
Recent data from the Federal Service for State Statistics show a further decline in Russia’s poverty rate in 2025. In the third quarter, 6.5% of the population – about 9.4 million people – lived below the poverty line, down from 8% (11.8 million people) a year earlier. The poverty line for the third quarter was set at a monthly income of 16,980 rubles.
Estimates from RANEPA indicate that over the past decade, the poverty rate has fallen from 13.3% to 7%.
At the same time, some economists caution that the figure is highly sensitive to the methodology used and to how the poverty line is defined. They also note that high consumer inflation disproportionately affects low-income households. According to the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting (CMASF), so-called “inflation for the poor” exceeded 20% this year. Research further shows that households spend nearly 35% of their income on food.