On 7 July 2015, at the closing presentation of the Product of Georgia programme together with a summary of its year of activities, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, gave a speech in which he stated: "It is very unfortunate and shameful for us that 50% of our population lives in poverty."

FactCheck

took interest in the accuracy of the Prime Minister’s statement and verified the official data on poverty.

According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia, registered poverty;

that is, the share of the population which receives a subsistence allowance, is 11.6% as of 2014. According to the statistical data of 2009-2013, the registered poverty rates were almost the same. This number increased significantly in 2014 (see Graph 1) based upon the preliminary results of the population census. As clarified by the National Statistics Office of Georgia, 2014’s poverty rate is calculated according to the preliminary results of the population census of 5 November 2014. According to the results of this census, Georgia’s population decreased from 4,372 thousand to 3,730 thousand. Therefore, the ratio of the population receiving a subsistence allowance has increased.

Graph 1:

 Registered Poverty in 2009-2014

In regard to the relative poverty rate (the share of the population which is below the 60% and 40% marks of median consumption), 21.4% of Georgia’s population consumes less than 60% of the median consumption (i.e., average consumption) whilst 8% of the population consumes less than 40% of the median consumption. According to the statistics of 2010-2014, Georgia’s relative poverty has dropped, albeit very slightly.

Graph 2:

Relative Poverty (%) in 2010-2014

The Prime Minister made a sharply different statement in September 2014 at the presentation of the 2014 Georgia National Report on the Millennium Development Goals. The Prime Minister stated: "From all the results achieved, it is noteworthy that the number of the population living below the poverty line has notably decreased and is practically halved." This statement of the Prime Minister became the subject of FactCheck’s earlier research and was concluded to be mostly false (see FactCheck’s article).

In fact, when the Prime Minister mentioned a practically halved poverty rate, his statement was based on the 2014 Georgia National Report on the Millennium Development Goals but this report analyses poverty indicators on the basis of 2006-2012 statistical data. According to 2012 data, the total amount of the population living in poverty is 14.8% whilst the amount of the population living in abject poverty is 3.7%. We can see that in 2006-2012, both abject and relative poverty were decreased but not halved. Therefore, both statements of the Prime Minister (in 2014 and in 2015) were exaggerated.

Conclusion

According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia, registered poverty in Georgia; that is, the share of the population which receives a subsistence allowance, is 11.6% of the total population. In regard to relative poverty rates, as of 2014, 21.4% of the population consumed less than 60% of the median consumption whilst 8% of the population consumed less than 40% of the median consumption.

Even though the Prime Minister’s statement is an exaggeration as demonstrated by the official data provided by the National Statistics Office of Georgia, FactCheck

confirms that poverty still remains one of the biggest challenges for the population of Georgia.

FactCheck concludes that the Prime Minister’s statement, Fifty percent of our population lives in poverty, is HALF TRUE.