Objective and Subjective Poverty in Russia: What the Last 20 Years Have Brought

The presented article is devoted to changes in the scale and qualitative characteristics of objective and subjective poverty in Russian society over the past 20 years. Based on the data of all-Russian empirical studies conducted by the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2003, 2013 and 2023, the dynamics of the number of objectively and subjectively poor Russians, the areas of intersection of these groups, their living conditions, their perception of their situation and ideas about the future of the country are traced. The obtained results indicate a noticeable reduction in both objective poverty (by income level) and subjective poverty (by self-assessment of their financial situation) among Russians over the past 20 years, which mainly occurred in the first half of this period. The reduction in the shares of objective and subjective poverty was accompanied by their divergence. As a result, an ever smaller share of Russians find themselves in the poverty zone simultaneously in both of these dimensions, and the portraits and characteristics of these groups differ increasingly. The objectively poor differ less in their assessments of their situation and opportunities in various spheres from the population as a whole, which indicates, on the one hand, the relatively shallow nature of income poverty, and on the other, the modest standard of living of the “typical Russian”. The subjectively poor are characterised by more noticeable differences from the population as a whole, in particular, negative assessments of many spheres of their lives. A similar situation is observed with the socio-psychological well-being of representatives of these groups: although over the past 20 years it has improved both among the poor by income and among the poor by self-assessment, positive changes in the first group occurred faster. As a result, the poor by self-assessment are characterised by a higher level of pessimism and anxiety compared to other Russians. In terms of assessments of Russia's development path, both objectively and subjectively the poor differ little from other Russians, demonstrating a public consensus: the population believes in a bright future for the country, but on the condition that it follows a special path that allows for social stability. Finally, it is important to note that the subjectively poor cannot be reduced to pensioners: the data confirm that this group is heterogeneous in its composition, which determines the absence of a clear portrait and the impossibility of identifying it as a "single addressee" of socio-economic policy.