30 percent of Hungarians lived below the subsistence minimum in 2020 – among other things, this can be read from the Policy Agenda analysis, according to the RTL Híradó report. The research institute calculated this on the basis of the latest available data from two years ago. The results have just been published. The living wage calculation shows how much income a person needs to maintain a minimum standard of living. KSH has not published these data since 2015.
In 2020, a person needed at least HUF 124,000 (approx 331.89 euros) per month to maintain a minimum standard of living based on the Policy Agenda analysis. The research institute has just published its calculations of the subsistence minimum, according to which most people live below the subsistence minimum in small towns and villages. Pál Belyó, the research director of the organization that prepared the analysis, is the former president of KSH (Central Statistics Office), according to whom the data show that the standard of living in Hungary is deteriorating.
30 percent of the Hungarian population lives below the subsistence minimum, this is quite a shocking thing, and in a few years, this situation will not improve, but will even get worse.
– he explained. It turned out that in 2020, 19 percent of people in Budapest, and an average of 40 percent in the villages, lived below the minimum wage in 2020. The situation was worst in the Northern Great Plain counties, where more than 43 percent of the people lived below the subsistence minimum.
The amount needed for a minimum subsistence also depends on the size of a family. Where there are two adults and two children, the adults had to earn a total of HUF 308,000 (approx 824.38 euros) in order to live in modest conditions. For retired households, the monthly subsistence minimum per person is HUF 114,000 (approx 305.13 euros) instead of HUF 124,000 (approx 331.89 euros).
As Pál Belyó said, in many countries around the world, the statistical methodology is similar to that developed in Hungary. They bought a basket of food necessary to sustain human existence, and it turned out that in 2020, a person in Hungary had to consume approximately HUF 30,000 (approx 80.30 euros) worth of food in order to stay alive. This is supplemented by consumer goods, products, services that people use in a month, energy, housing, transport, or other services. In 2020, this totaled HUF 124,000 (approx 331.89 euros).
