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Social protection

Area
Social protection helps the underprivileged and vulnerable members of society to cope, covering public and private financial support and support services for job search, health care and daily living. The state organises social protection through social insurance and social welfare. Social insurance provides a person at least a minimum income in the event of loss of employment, illness, birth of a child, incapacity for work and old age. Social welfare is aimed at improving the living standards of the most vulnerable members of society and preventing poverty. Social protection measures help

Last year every fifth person in Estonia lived in relative poverty

Kuupäev 15.12.2016
Article
According to Statistics Estonia, in 2015, 21.3% of the Estonian population lived in relative poverty and 3.9% in absolute poverty. The overall percentage of people living in relative poverty decreased 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous year, the percentage of people living in absolute poverty decreased 2.4 percentage points.

Population

Area
A country’s greatest wealth is the people who live there. Knowing who make up the country's population tells us also about its past, present and future. Population includes all people living in the country, including foreign nationals and stateless persons. Population indicators show the breakdown of people living in Estonia by sex, age, nationality and educational level as well as where they come from. In Estonia, it is necessary to make sure that future generations will continue to sustain local life. The main population indicators are the following: population figure as at the beginning of

Every fifth person in Estonia lived in relative poverty in 2014

Kuupäev 16.02.2016
Article
According to Statistics Estonia, in 2014, 21.6% of the Estonian population lived in relative poverty and 6.3% in absolute poverty. The overall percentage of people living in relative poverty decreased 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous year, the percentage of people living in absolute poverty decreased 1.7 percentage points.

Every sixth person in Estonia lived in relative poverty last year

Kuupäev 19.12.2012
Article
According to Statistics Estonia, in 2011, 17.5% of the Estonian population lived in relative poverty. The overall percentage of people living in relative poverty stayed on the same level compared to the previous year, but the income of the population increased.

Every fifth person in Estonia lived in relative poverty and every fourteenth in absolute poverty last year

Kuupäev 17.12.2013
Article
According to Statistics Estonia, in 2012, 18.7% of the Estonian population lived in relative poverty and 7.3% in absolute poverty. The overall percentage of people living in relative poverty increased 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous year, but the percentage of people living in absolute poverty decreased 0.8 percentage points.

At-risk-of-poverty rate down, absolute poverty rate up in Estonia

Kuupäev 06.11.2025
Article
The news release was corrected on 11 March 2026. The corrections are marked in red. Epp Remmelg, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that the at-risk-of-poverty rate reflects income inequality in a country. “People at risk of poverty are not living in outright deprivation, but they cannot afford the standard of living that is considered normal in society,” the analyst noted. In 2024, close to 263,200 people lived at risk of poverty, which is nearly 11,600 fewer than in 2023. Their net monthly income, taking into account household composition, i.e. the equivalised disposable income, was