The National Statistics Office said yesterday that 14.9 per cent of all persons living in households fell under the poverty line in 2005.

This means there were 59,315 persons in such a situation.

The NSO published its first collection of poverty indicators for 2005.

The poverty rate among males stood at 14.2 per cent, while that among females was 15.5 per cent.

The total gross household income amounted to Lm1.2 billion. Most of this revenue was attributed to income derived from employment. Another high proportion came from old-age benefits.

After deducting household transfers together with tax and national insurance contributions, the total disposable household income amounted to almost Lm1 billion, with an average of Lm7,009 per household.

The highest average household disposable income was recorded among households with five or more members.

A considerable difference was recorded between single person households and two-member households. In fact, the average for the latter group exceeded that for the former by 87 per cent.

The differences between averages dropped as the household size increased.

The average household disposable income for households with dependent children was estimated at Lm8,143. This value exceeds that of households without dependent children by 29 per cent. The lowest average values were obtained for one person households at Lm3,152 and single adult households with one or more dependent children at Lm4,744.

The disposable income was used to measure the equivalised income of every person within a household.

The poverty line was established by calculating 60 per cent of the median equivalised income.

All persons whose equivalised income fell under this threshold were considered to be at the risk of poverty.

The ratio between the sums of the highest and lowest 20 per cent equivalised incomes (S80/S20 ratio) was estimated at 4.1.

Children and the elderly are the two highest categories at risk of poverty - 21.9 per cent of children under 16 and 16.3 per cent of persons aged 65 and over fell under the poverty line.

On analysing poverty by household type, it resulted that the poverty rate was highest among persons living in single parent households.

This rate stood at 47.9 per cent. Another high value of 34.7 per cent was observed among those living in households with two adults and three or more dependent children.

The lowest poverty rate was recorded among households with three or more adults without dependent children.

Analysis of persons aged 16 and over revealed that nearly half of the unemployed fell under the poverty line in contrast to 5.5 per cent of persons at work. Most of the unemployed under the poverty line were male.

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