The main findings on poverty in 2025 are as follows:
Monetary poverty
The absolute poverty threshold averaged 3,764.4 lei per month per person, and the absolute poverty rate was 31.1%, respectively. That is, one third of the population lived with a monthly income below this threshold. Previously, this indicator was equal to 34%.
The extreme poverty threshold amounted on average to 3035.7 lei per month per person, below which 15.1% of the population lived.
The statistics for 2025 are calculated according to the new methodology, while the statistics of the previous years have not yet been recalculated according to the new methodology. The change of methodology was agreed with the World Bank and was subjected to public consultations.
According to expert Marina Solovieva, the change in the methodology for calculating poverty has led to the fact that “absolute poverty indicators have decreased on average by 3 percentage points compared to the old methodology, while it makes no sense to compare with previous historical periods and talk about the reduction or increase in poverty until they are recalculated according to the new methodology”.
To assess absolute poverty, the updated national methodology uses an absolute poverty threshold based on consumption expenditures, which allows for comparable monitoring of poverty dynamics over time.
The NBS has now introduced some additional inputs – health expenditures, noting that including medical expenditures in consumption expenditures does not distort the ratio of the poorest to the richest groups, because in general, the richer a person is, the more he or she spends on medical services. Thus, the proportions remain unchanged.
One can argue with this, given that the degree of spending on health care does not usually depend on one’s wallet, and being “healthy and rich” is certainly better, but it is not always possible. Especially since primary insurance medicine is free for both the poor and the rich, and health expenditures in the consumer basket of the average person are formed according to other characteristics and needs.
“The NBS has added expenditures on medical services and medicines that were not previously counted. Thus, our consumption “grew” and we all became somewhat “richer”, which affected the specific weight of the poor, whose share decreased,” says Marina Solovieva.
Another innovation of the methodology is the updating of the sample used for the study of household budgets. By questioning respondents, the NBS obtains the necessary data to calculate poverty indicators.
“In the new sample, the structure of the surveyed population has been changed according to the results of the 2024 census. According to the census results, the structure of the Moldovan population has undergone significant changes in two aspects: first, the weight of the elderly population (65 years and older), whose consumption is usually lower than that of the younger population due to low incomes, which, according to statistics, “increased” the total weight of the poor. And secondly, the specific weight of the rural population, which is usually poorer than the urban population, has decreased, and thus the level of absolute poverty has somewhat “decreased”,” explains Marina Solovieva.
Non-monetary poverty
The indicator of multidimensional poverty, which reflects the share of the population experiencing various deprivations or deprivations (facing at least 35% of the weighted indicators of the Multidimensional Poverty Index), amounted to 27.4%.
Meanwhile, the intensity of multidimensional poverty was 48.3%, meaning that each such person on average faced deprivation on about half of the weighted indicators. This means that of the 27.4% of the population categorized as multidimensional poverty, they experience a medium degree of constraints.
The value of the Multidimensional Poverty Index was 0.132, indicating that, on average, poor people (by non-monetary methodology) in Moldova face 13.2% of the total number of deprivations measured by the ISM index.
In other words, the quality of life according to the criteria chosen by the statisticians, ensuring, in their opinion, a civilized existence (availability of living conditions) and access to the resources of education, health care, labor market, is assessed by this value.
At the international level, the analysis of poverty as a multidimensional and complex phenomenon is based on a set of monetary and non-monetary indicators measuring various aspects of poverty, including multidimensional approaches that allow a more comprehensive assessment of the welfare of the population.
There will also be “relative poverty.” What is it?
The NBS reports that the agency is starting to measure another indicator. The experimental relative poverty statistics are “innovative statistics under development, including at the evaluation stage”. The data are now being tested and their relevance is being studied.
This is done “for a broader analysis of the poverty phenomenon and taking into account the recommendations of Eurostat in response to requests from national users”. This indicator examines the risk of poverty in general and can be found under the title “relative poverty rate including social transfers”.
Relative poverty is understood as a situation where a person’s monetary resources do not allow him/her to reach a certain level of well-being that is characteristic of the entire population of a country. According to this method of assessment, people whose monetary resources are lower compared to the rest of the population are identified.
This, of course, does not automatically mean that the resources of these people do not allow them to ensure a minimum standard of living (which in the usual sense would mean a state of poverty). It is simply that all demands are not being met. For this reason, at the EU level, relative poverty indicators are called “people at risk of poverty” indicators.
The poverty risk threshold (including social transfers) is the level of disposable income per adult against which a person (with income below the threshold) can be considered poor. The poverty risk threshold in Moldova, according to experimental calculations, is 60% of the median value of the population distribution by disposable income per adult. In 2025, in absolute value, it amounted to 3705.6 lei.
