Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

1.6. Poverty profile in Serbia
The poverty profile describes the poor
population in Serbia according to different features
such as the place of residence of households
(location and region), market status of the head of a
household and household members, demographic
structure of households (e.g. sex, age, household
size, number of children), as well as the size of farm
owned by the household. A profile of the poor
under these features is presented in this part, while
part 7 analyses the net effects of these features on
the household consumption. The poverty profile
will be presented by using the LSMS data from
2007 and it will be compared to the estimates for
2002 obtained by using the same methodology for
poverty assessment.
1.7. Regional poverty component
Poverty in Serbia is predominantly a rural
phenomenon, as in many counties in transition.
Poverty was much more present in rural areas than
it was in urban areas in 2007 (9.8 percent versus 4.3
percent), as it was five years ago (Table 7). However,
poverty in rural areas dropped more than in
urban areas over 2002-2007 (8 percentage points
versus 6.8 percentage points). Differences in
poverty between urban and rural areas remained
high over 2002-2007. The depth and severity of
poverty in rural areas were considerably higher than
in urban areas. In 2007, almost two thirds of the
poor lived in rural areas (Table 8).
Serbia is a country with deep, lasting and
growing regional disparities in economic
development 3 . According to the recently adopted
National Economic Development Strategy of the
Republic of Serbia (2007), regional discrepancies in
development in Serbia are among the largest in
Europe 4 , and they have even increased over the past
years. The process of transition to a market economy
has intensified the existing economic discrepancies
among regions due to thee closing down of a number
of large public companies, intensified restructuring
and privatization. Apart from the traditionally
underdeveloped Southern Serbia region, some new
regions emerged with a low level of economic
development (East Serbia and some parts of Central
Serbia; regional centres of mining and industry in
West Serbia).
Large regional discrepancies in poverty are in
line with the existing discrepancies in their
economic development. The poverty index ranged
from 3 percent in urban area of Belgrade up to 18.7
percent in rural area of South East Serbia in 2007
(Table 8).
Belgrade where the most viable opportunities
for economic development thrive is still in a much
better position than the rest of the country. On the
other hand, central Serbia (without Belgrade) is still
the poorest region in Serbia. Vojvodina is still
positioned between these two extremes, where the
poverty index is slightly below the country’s
average (6.1 percent versus 6.6 percent
respectively), yet with large discrepancies between
urban and rural areas. Rural areas in Central Serbia
and Vojvodina are faced with the largest poverty
index (10.7 percent and 9.9 percent respectively).
Table 1.7. Key poverty indicators by settlement type, 2002-2007
Poverty index, percent
Poverty depth, percent
Poverty severity,
percent
2002 2007 Change 2002 2007 Change 2002 2007 Change
Urban 11.2 4.3 -6.8 2.1 0.8 -1.3 0.6 0.3 -0.4
Standard errors 0.86 0.63 0.21 0.16 0.08 0.07
Rural 17.7 9.8 -8.0 4.2 2.0 -2.2 1.5 0.6 -0.9
Standard errors 1.28 1.18 0.37 0.34 0.16 0.13
Total 14.0 6.6 -7.4 3.0 1.3 -1.7 1.0 0.4 -0.6
Standard errors 0.74 0.61 0.20 0.17 0.08 0.07
Note: The changes in percentage points between 2002 and 2007.
Poverty profile in Serbia
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