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Increasingly more households admit that pay for usual necessary expenses with some difficulty or fairly easily (rise from 45.6% in 2014 to 49.7% in 2015 and 52.8% in 2016). The share of households paying for usual necessary expenses with difficulty or with great difficulty keeps declining – from 50.5% in to 45.1% in 2015 and 42.1% in 2016.

Household ability to make ends meet in 2014–2016 (%, sum of answers 100 %)

Data source: survey European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, 2014–2016

The smallest proportion of households indicating that pay for usual necessary expenses with difficulty or with great difficulty was recorded in Riga and Kurzeme – 36% and 38.4%, respectively. Moreover, compared to other Latvian regions, the largest share (7.8%) of the households having the most optimistic perception of own ability to pay for usual necessary expenses – easily or very easily – was observed in Kurzeme.

However, more than a half of Zemgale and Latgale households (51.1% and 50.6%, respectively) pointed out that make ends meet with difficulty or with great difficulty. Only small part of the households living in these regions admitted that pay for usual necessary expenses easily or very easily (3.5% in Zemgale and 2.9% in Latgale).  

Answers to the question on household ability to make ends meet in Latvian regions, urban and rural areas; 2016 (per cent, sum of answers 100%)

Data source: survey European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions 2016

Analysis of the educational level attained by the household main breadwinner at working age (aged under 64) shows that education has notable influence on the household welfare. In 2016, 62.7% of the households the main breadwinner of which had basic or lower education paid for usual necessary expenses with difficulty or with great difficulty. The share households with the same opinion was significantly larger among those the main breadwinner of which had attained higher education – 22.8%. Moreover, 10.5% of those households admitted that make ends meet easily or very easily.

 Household ability to make ends meet by educational attainment of main breadwinner (aged under 64); 2016 (%)

The greatest difficulty to pay for usual necessary expenses was faced by households consisting of one person aged over 65 and by those consisting of one adult with children.

Ability to make ends meet in households of various demographic types; 2016 (%)

Data source: survey European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions 2016

Compared to 2015, the sharpest reduction in the proportion of households paying for usual necessary expenses with difficulty or with great difficulty was observed among couples with children. In 2016, the share of such households among couples with three or more children fell by 8.1 percentage points (ppt), among couples with two children by 5.2 ppt and among couples with one child by 3.6 ppt. Ability to make ends meet in households consisting of single person (aged under 64) remained almost as much difficult as before. In 2015, 44.7% of these households paid for usual necessary expenses with difficulty or great difficulty, while in 2016 those were 44.1%.

In 2016, Latvia population admitted that one household member would need at least 510 euros monthly to pay for usual necessary expenses, which is 5.6% or 27 euros more than in 2015 and 12.8% or 58 euros more than in 2014.

However, along with the rise in the sum necessary to make ends meets also increase in the household disposable income may be observed. In 2015, Latvia population indicated that one household member would need at least 483 euros monthly to make ends meet, while household disposable income, reaching 417 euros per household member monthly, constituted 86.3% of that sum. In 2014, the share of household disposable income was slightly smaller – 85.6% of the sum necessary to pay for the usual necessary expenses.

In 2015, households of 1^st and 2^nd quintile group had the greatest gap between the disposable income and the sum necessary to pay for usual necessary expenses, moreover they named notably smaller sums needed to make ends meet. Households of the 1^st quintile group indicated that one household member would need at least 339 euros monthly, and 2^nd quintile group households admitted that at least 407 euros monthly. 

However, disposable income of these households considerably lagged behind the minimum sum necessary to make ends meet. Reaching 150 euros per household member monthly, disposable income of the 1^st quintile group households constituted only 44.2 % of the sum necessary to pay for usually necessary expenses. Disposable income of the 2^nd quintile group households, reaching 257 euros per household member monthly, in its turn, comprised 63.1 % of the minim sum necessary to make ends meet.

Ability to make ends meet by quintile group; 2014 –2016 (%)

Data source: survey European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions; 2014–2016

In 2016, 66.9% of the poorest households (belonging to the 1^st quintile group) paid for usual necessary expenses with difficulty or great difficulty. The proportion of those among richest households (belonging to the 5^th quintile group) was significantly smaller. Moreover, compared to poorest households, 5^th quintile group households indicated significantly higher sum needed to make ends meet – at least 724 euros per household member monthly.

Compared to 2015, the sharpest decline (of 5.4 ppt) in the share of households paying for usual necessary expenses with difficulty or great difficulty was recorded in the 3^rd quintile group. The proportion of such households in the 2^nd quintile group fell by 3.5 percentage points, while in the 1^st (bottom) quintile group – only by 1.4 ppt.

Information on the population opinion about the sums needed to make ends meet and household disposable income statistics was acquired with the help of the survey European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) 2016 conducted by the CSB. The survey covered 6.1 thousand households, and 11.7 thousand respondents aged over 16 were interviewed. Data on the household disposable income in 2016 will be acquired within the EU–SILC survey that will be conducted from March to June 2017. CSB would like to thank all the persons who took part in the survey and completed electronic questionnaire from 1 to 14 February 2017. The electronic questionnaire was filled in by 15.4% of the respondents.