Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

Table 1.8. Poverty by regions in Serbia, 2002-2007
Structure of the poor,
Structure of overall
Percentage of the poor
percent
population, percent
2002 2007 Change 2002 2007 Change 2002 2007 Change
Urban 11.2 4.3 -6.8 45.0 38.6 -6.4 56.4 58.5 2.1
Rural 17.7 9.8 -8.0 55.0 61.4 6.4 43.6 41.5 -2.1
Belgrade 10.8 3.1 -7.7 16.3 10.4 -5.9 21.1 22.3 1.1
Urban 9.3 3.0 -6.3 11.4 8.4 -3.0 17.2 18.3 1.2
Rural 17.2 3.3 -13.9 4.9 1.9 -2.9 4.0 3.9 -0.0
Vojvodina 12.4 6.1 -6.2 23.9 26.3 2.4 27.1 28.3 1.2
Urban 10.7 3.3 -7.4 11.7 8.1 -3.6 15.4 16.2 0.8
Rural 14.5 9.9 -4.6 12.1 18.2 6.0 11.7 12.1 0.4
Central Serbia 16.2 8.4 -7.8 59.9 63.4 3.5 51.8 49.5 -2.3
Urban 12.8 6.1 -6.8 48.5 57.1 8.6 42.3 41.0 -1.3
Rural 19.1 10.7 -8.4 69.1 67.3 -1.9 64.0 61.4 -2.7
West Serbia 16.5 8.4 -8.1 13.2 13.4 0.3 11.2 10.5 -0.7
Urban 15.8 4.0 -11.9 4.9 2.6 -2.3 4.3 4.2 -0.1
Rural 17.0 11.4 -5.5 8.3 10.9 2.6 6.8 6.3 -0.6
Šumadija 13.8 3.7 -10.1 17.0 9.4 -7.6 17.3 16.8 -0.5
Urban 10.4 2.5 -7.8 6.2 3.2 -3.0 8.5 8.5 0.0
Rural 17.1 4.9 -12.2 10.8 6.2 -4.6 8.8 8.3 -0.5
East Serbia 12.9 10.1 -2.8 8.6 13.2 4.6 9.3 8.6 -0.7
Urban 11.8 11.2 -0.6 3.7 6.9 3.2 4.4 4.1 -0.3
Rural 13.9 9.1 -4.8 4.9 6.3 1.4 4.9 4.6 -0.4
South-East Serbia 21.2 13.3 -7.9 21.2 27.3 6.2 14.0 13.5 -0.5
Urban 14.7 8.5 -6.1 7.0 9.3 2.3 6.7 7.2 0.5
Rural 27.2 18.7 -8.5 14.1 18.0 3.9 7.3 6.4 -0.9
Total 14.0 6.6 -7.4 100.0 100.0 0.0 100.0 100.0 0.0
Note: Changes in percentage points between 2002 and 2007.
Although poverty was reduced in all regions of
Serbia, discrepancies within regions between the
poverty in urban and rural areas remained high.
The percentage of the poor population dropped
across Serbian regions – mostly in rural areas of
Belgrade and Šumadija and in urban areas of West
Serbia, and to the lowest extent in urban areas of
East Serbia (Table 8). As it was the case five years
ago, rural population of South-East Serbia was the
most challenged where 18.7 percent of population
was poor in 2007. 5 Rural areas of that region have
6.4 percent of the population and 18 percent of the
poor. Discrepancies in poverty of urban and rural
areas within regions remained quite high. In 2007,
Vojvodina and West Serbia are the regions where
the largest discrepancy between the urban and rural
poverty was recorded, while five years ago it was
Belgrade and South-East Serbia.
Large regional discrepancies in the poverty
index may be accounted for, among other things, by
a slower pace of enterprise restructuring, higher
unemployment rate and lower wages in Central
Serbia as compared to Belgrade. According to LFS
2006, the unemployment rate (population between
15 and 64 years of age) significantly differed by
regions in Serbia, and ranged from 17 percent in
Belgrade up to 25 percent in Central Serbia. 6 The
survey on wages by districts (World Bank, 2006)
also points to significant regional gaps – wages
were highest in Belgrade, whereas the lowest wages
were recorded in majority of Central Serbia
districts. In addition, farm income, which is inferior
to wages as a source of livelihood, was more
important source of income among the Central
Serbia population than it was in Belgrade. A
multivariable analysis of poverty in the following
18 Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007