The number of beneficiaries receiving subsistence allowance increased by 69 thousand and exceeded 551,000 for the first time in 2021. According to the Social Service Agency, a total of 154 thousand families receive subsistence allowance, and the number of residents in these families is 14.8% of the Georgian population.
The number of beneficiaries receiving subsistence allowance has grown at a particularly rapid rate in the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the statistics of the Social Service Agency, a total of 30.6 million GEL was distributed as a social allowance in May, which was 55 GEL per month per beneficiary.
According Geostat, number of people living below the poverty line in the country increased by 1.8 percentage points and reached 21.3% of the population in 2020. According to poverty statistics, there has not been a single year in the last 10 years when poverty has increased so dramatically.
According to statistics, the growth of poverty is more acute in the regions, where the number of vulnerable population has increased by 3.8 percentage points to 27.5%. Absolute poverty in cities increased by 0.7 percentage points to 17.1%.
