More than 1/5 of Bulgarians live below the poverty line

The poverty threshold in Bulgaria was BGN 637.92 (EUR 323) per person per month in 2023. This is an increase of 21.3 per cent compared with the previous year, when the indicator was BGN 525.92 (EUR 266), the National Statistical Institute said.

In 2023, 1.3259 million Bulgarians, or 20.6 per cent of the country's population, were below the poverty line. In 2022, it was 1.572 million Bulgarians, or 22.9 per cent of the total population.

56.8 per cent of the poor are unemployed. The working poor represent 11.7% of the country's labour force. More than 2/3 of them are people with no school education. Part-time workers are three times more at risk of poverty than full-time workers.