Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

Table 1.14. Poverty by household type, 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
Number of children 0-6 years of age
No children 14.1 5.8 -8.3 78.2 68.1 -10.1 77.8 77.6 -0.2
1 11.9 6.3 -5.6 13.2 14.7 1.4 15.6 15.3 -0.3
2 16.7 12.7 -4.0 7.0 11.2 4.2 5.9 5.8 -0.1
3 and more 28.0 30.5 2.5 1.5 6.0 4.5 0.8 1.3 0.5
Household size
1 17.6 7.0 -10.6 7.1 6.4 -0.7 5.7 6.0 0.4
2 14.4 6.7 -7.6 16.4 15.8 -0.7 16.1 15.4 -0.6
3 10.7 3.7 -7.0 14.7 10.5 -4.2 19.3 18.8 -0.5
4 11.3 4.9 -6.3 22.7 19.6 -3.1 28.2 26.2 -2.0
5 14.9 5.8 -9.1 14.9 13.9 -1.0 14.0 15.8 1.8
6 18.3 7.9 -10.4 13.0 13.6 0.6 9.9 11.3 1.3
7 and more 22.9 20.2 -2.7 11.2 20.2 9.0 6.8 6.6 -0.2
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.
The following two categories who had aboveaverage
poverty index in 2007 were children
between 6 and 14 and children up to 5. Their
poverty index equalled 9.5 percent and 8.7 percent
respectively and they accounted for 13.9 percent of
the total and 19.5 percent of the poor population.
The poverty of children up to 14 was the one least
reduced compared to 2002. Other age groups had
poverty index either on the average or belowaverage
levels. However, it should be taken into
account that these results depend on the
assumptions used in defining equivalence scales
and economies of scale (Lanjouw and Ravallion,
1995).
An increase in the number of small children in
a household increases the poverty risk. Households
without small children or with one small child (0-6
years of age) had a below-average poverty index
(Table 14). A higher number of small children in a
household imply higher poverty. Households with
two small children had the poverty index which was
almost twice as high as average (12.7 percent versus
6.6 percent), and households with three and more
small children had the poverty index as high as 30.5
percent. However, this last group represents a small
percent of the poor (6 percent). The largest part of
the poor is made up of the households without small
children, since they account for almost two-thirds of
the poor.
Table 14 also indicates that the households
with six and more members are still the poorest
ones since their poverty index is above the
population average and it was the highest one when
compared to other demographic groups. In 2007,
they accounted for 17.9 percent of total population
and 33.8 percent of the poor. Poverty among the
households with seven and more members dropped
the least in the 2002-2007 period and their status
with respect to the population average has
worsened.
An important element for explaining poverty
in the households with several members is the
dependency ratio. This measures household
members not of working age (children and senior
citizens) who are supported by employed members.
Households with several members have more
children, which makes the contribution of the
working members smaller than it is the case with
the households with fewer members, thus resulting
in their lower consumption level. Consequently,
households with three or four members are in a
more favourable position that the others. It was also
evident in 2002. Majority of these households are
the households with employed adult members less
exposed to poverty risk (although most of them
have one or two children) as shown in Table 10.
Nevertheless, as it has been already mentioned, all
these results should be carefully interpreted since
they largely depend on the assumptions made in
defining equivalence scales and economies of
scale.
22 Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007