Low‑income families in 2026: who lives below the poverty line in Russia
A low‑income family in Russia today is most often a family with children. According to Rosstat data for 2024, children under 18 are present in 74.3% of poor households, and in 29.1% of them there are three or more children. A pensioner living alone appears in this statistic much less often than is commonly thought. In 2026 the subsistence minimum per person nationwide equals 18,939 rubles per month, for a child 18,371 rubles, and for a family of two adults and two children it is 78,030 rubles in total. Below we examine how many such families there are, how much money they lack, and in which regions they are most numerous. Each chart has an interactive version on the website.
Which family is considered low‑income
Rosstat classifies a household as low‑income if the income per member is below the poverty line. Until 2020 the benchmark was the subsistence minimum; since 2021 the poverty line is used, calculated from median income. For a family, the subsistence minimum is more practical: it determines whether a benefit is payable.
Subsistence minimum for 2026 in Russia:
| Category | Rubles per month |
|---|---|
| Per capita | 18,939 |
| Working‑age adult | 20,644 |
| Child | 18,371 |
| Pensioner | 16,288 |
A year earlier the per‑capita minimum was 17,733 rubles, so it grew by 6.8% over the year. Let’s calculate an example. For a mother, father and two school‑age children the family minimum is: 20,644 × 2 plus 18,371 × 2, totaling 78,030 rubles per month. If there are three children, it becomes 96,401 rubles. An income below this amount is the threshold at which the family is considered poor by state standards. Each region has its own minimum; they can be compared in the regional ranking of subsistence minimums, and the full series by years and population groups is available in the Rosstat dataset.
How many low‑income families are there in Russia
In 2024, low‑income households accounted for 2.5% of all households in the country. This is noticeably lower than ten years earlier: in 2013 the share was 6.6%, it rose to 8.9% in 2015, and then fell almost continuously. The dynamics are shown in the dataset on the share of low‑income households.
If you count people rather than families, the numbers are different. In 2025, 9.7 million people, or 6.7% of the population, lived below the poverty line, a year earlier it was 10.3 million and 7.1%. The percentage of people is higher than that of families because poor households are larger than average: they have many children. A detailed year‑by‑year history from 1995 is covered in a separate article on the poverty level in Russia.
Who these families are: children, not retirees
The composition of the low‑income population has changed a lot over the past fifteen years. In 2011, families with children made up 59.7% of poor households; by 2024 they accounted for 74.3%. The share of large families grew the most, from 6.5% to 29.1%. Families with one child represent 19.8% of low‑income households, with two children 25.5%.
Why this happens is clear from simple arithmetic. Adults earn wages, which are divided among all members. Two wages for four people give half the per‑person income compared with the same two wages for two people. A retiree receives a pension that is indexed each year, and his own subsistence minimum is lower than that of an adult or a child.
This is also visible in the composition of the low‑income population. In 2023, children under 16 made up 38.9% of all poor, working‑age people 55.4%, and those older than working age only 5.7%. Seniors accounted for 6.0% of the low‑income group. Another detail: 25.5% of the poor are employed. Employment does not guarantee escaping poverty if several people live on one salary. A full breakdown by age, employment and settlement type is available in the dataset on the composition of the low‑income population.
Large families: one in five below the poverty line
For large families Rosstat publishes a separate indicator: what share of all families with three or more children is low‑income. In 2020, 38.1% of such families were below the poverty line, in 2021 – 38.2%. Then the share fell: 29.4% in 2022, 21.5% in 2023 and 19.8% in 2024. Over four years the share almost halved, but still roughly one in five large families is poor.
The spread across regions is huge. The list is headed by Dagestan: in 2024, 51.4% of large families there were low‑income, i.e., more than half. Next are Irkutsk Oblast (37.6%), Ingushetia (37.4%) and Buryatia (33.8%). The fewest poor large families are in the Yamalo‑Nenets Autonomous Okrug (7.3%), Khanty‑Mansi (7.6%), Moscow (7.7%) and Voronezh Oblast (7.9%). You can find your region in the dataset on low‑income large families.
How Much Money a Poor Family Lacks
In addition to the number of poor people, Rosstat calculates income deficit: how many rubles per month need to be added to a household for it to rise above the poverty line. In 2024, on average across all low‑income households this was 14,974 rubles per month.
The shortage varies between families:
| Household type | Shortfall per month, rubles (2024) |
|---|---|
| Without children under 18 | 8,618 |
| With one child | 14,326 |
| With two children | 14,231 |
| With three or more children | 21,670 |
| All families with children | 17,168 |
| In the city | 15,312 |
| In the countryside | 14,709 |
A large‑family household lacks two and a half times more than a childless household. It also accounts for the main share of the total deficit: 42.1% of all missing money in the country is attributable to families with three or more children, and 85.2% to all families with children.
At the same time, the income of the low‑income also grew. In 2017, the average per capita income of a poor household was 7,185 rubles per month, and in 2024 it was already 12,467 rubles. For large‑family low‑income households the per‑person income in 2024 was 12,505 rubles. But the poverty line also rose, so the shortfall in rubles hardly decreased: in 2017 it was 12,016 rubles. You can view the full series by year and household type in the dataset on incomes and deficits of low‑income households.
Poverty by Regions in 2025
The share of people below the poverty line varies widely across regions. The highest in 2025 was in Ingushetia, 24.3%. Followed by Tuva (18.6%), Karachay‑Cherkessia (15.3%) and Buryatia (14.1%). The lowest was in Saint Petersburg, 3.2%, then Tatarstan and Yamalo‑Nenets Autonomous Okrug (both 3.3%) and Moscow (3.8%). Across Russia as a whole, recall, it was 6.7%.
All subjects by rank can be seen in the regional poverty ranking, and the dynamics of a particular region on the indicator page, for example poverty in Dagestan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which family is considered low‑income in 2026?
A family whose per‑person income is below the subsistence minimum in its region. Across Russia the average in 2026 is 18,939 rubles per capita, 20,644 rubles per working‑age person, 18,371 rubles per child and 16,288 rubles per pensioner. The exact amount depends on the region and family composition.
How much must a family of four earn to avoid being low‑income?
If the family has two working‑age adults and two children, based on the Russian average figures for 2026 its total income should be at least 78,030 rubles per month. For three children the figure is 96,401 rubles. In regions where the minimum is higher than the average, the amount is larger.
Who among the poor in Russia is most numerous?
Families with children. In 2024, 74.3% of low‑income households had children under 18. Children under 16 accounted for 38.9% of all poor in 2023, and pensioners due to old age 6.0%.
Is the number of poor decreasing?
Yes. The share of low‑income households fell from 8.9% in 2015 to 2.5% in 2024, and the share of poor among large families dropped from 38.1% in 2020 to 19.8% in 2024. The poverty rate of the population in 2025 was 6.7%, the lowest in the entire observation history.
How much money does a low‑income family lack?
On average 14,974 rubles per month per household according to 2024 data. A childless family lacks 8,618 rubles, a family with three or more children lacks 21,670 rubles.
In Brief
- Subsistence minimum for 2026 across Russia: 18,939 rubles per capita, 18,371 rubles per child. A family with two adults and two children needs at least 78,030 rubles per month.
- Low‑income households accounted for 2.5% of all in 2024, compared with 8.9% in 2015.
- 74.3% of poor households have children, 29.1% have three or more. Pensioners due to old age make up about 6% of the poor.
- Roughly one in five large families is poor, in Dagestan more than half.
- Average income shortfall for low‑income households is 14,974 rubles per month, for large families 21,670 rubles.
All figures are taken from Rosstat data published on roschart.ru.