Rural Population of Ukraine: Statistical Analysis of Living Standards

• Main Author: Н. М. Lunova
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the National Academy of Statistics, Accounting and Audit (NASAA), the National Academy for Public Administration (NAPA) under the President of Ukraine 2016-06-01
• Series: Статистика України
• Subjects: rural population, living standards, incomes, resources, wages, employment, living wage, poverty
• Online Access: https://su-journal.com.ua/index.php/journal/article/view/90
• ISSN: 2519-1853; 2519-1861

Low living standards of the population, especially rural one, are an urgent socio-economic problem for the Ukrainian economy. The purpose of this article is analysis of characteristics and indicators of living standards of the rural population in Ukraine, to find and improve the mechanisms for their stabilization and consequent growth. The living standards of the rural population are assessed by analyzing the incomes (including the wages) and main indicators of poverty, and finding out the tendencies of natural movement and employment of rural population. The analysis shows an increase in the nominal average monthly incomes of the rural population and an insignificant gap between incomes of the rural population and the urban population. However, real incomes of the rural households in 2014 fell due to rapidly growing consumer price index. There’s a wide gap between the structure of total incomes of rural and urban households, including the gap between the shares of wage and income in kind. While the share of wage (main source of income) for rural households is 35.1 % of the total income, for urban households it is 56.9%. A large share of total incomes of rural households (9.4%) originates from sales of agricultural products. The essential reasons behind the expansion of economic activities within a rural household are absence of permanent cash earning, low functionality of the labor market, lower salaries in the agricultural sector and, consequently, the falling living standards of the rural population. According to sample survey of households, conducted by the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, while in 2010 the share of the rural population classifying themselves as “poor ones” had been 65.1%, in 2014 it grew up to 75.5%. The measures of natural growth and employment are used as social indicators for assessment of living standards of the rural population in Ukraine. The analysis shows the falling numbers of the rural population in Ukraine, caused, first and foremost, by depopulation (with numbers of deaths exceeding births). The employment rate in 2014 was 9.3% Ukrainian average and 9.5% in the rural area. The analysis leads to the conclusion on the low living standards of the rural population in Ukraine. A way to enhance them is to intensify the government support to small rural businesses, which would enable to reduce the employment rate and increase the household incomes.