Rosstat reported a record low in poverty, but the portrait of the poor in Russia hasn't changed.

By the end of 2025, the number of Russians with incomes below the poverty line had fallen to 9,7 million, representing 6,7% of the population—a historic low. These data are presented in the "Socioeconomic Poverty Indicators for 2019–2025" bulletin published by Rosstat.

Rural areas, children, and work: who is most likely to fall into the poverty category?

However, the record decline in the proportion of low-income people does not change the fundamental structure of Russian poverty. In particular, it remains closely linked to living in rural areas and having children, and having a formal job has long been no guarantee of escape.

According to 2024 data, 59,5% of the poor live in rural areas, although only a quarter of the country's population lives there. Consequently, 40,3% of the poor are children under 16, and 74,3% of low-income households are families with children. One in five large families (20,2%) lives below the poverty line, and if children are raised by a single unemployed adult, almost one in two such households (43,6%) is poor. Moreover, 41,7% of low-income citizens are officially employed.

Income, benefit dependence and diet

The average income in a poor family is 12,467 rubles per person per month. Therefore, they are on average 4,032 rubles short of being officially considered poor. As a result, 40% of such a family's budget consists of government payments (pensions, benefits, and subsidies). Incidentally, the share of payments in the budget of all families in the country has also increased, from 13,3% to 28,4%.

Moreover, half of all expenses for low-income people (50,3% in 2025) go toward food. The daily diet of a poor person contains 1,996 kilocalories, compared to 2,769 for the rest of the population. They consume almost half as much fruit and a third less meat. For comparison, the official poverty line in the fourth quarter of 2025 was 17,146 rubles per month.