One in ten living below the poverty line

About 10.1 percent of the Faroese population were deemed to live below the poverty line in 2018, according to the latest figures from Statistics Faroe Islands.

This is the same percentage as in 2016, but 0.4 percent less than in 2017.

In 2014, 10.9 percent of the proportion was deemed to live below the poverty line, which is the highest figure registered in the Faroes since records began in 2009.

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The poverty line is the minimum level of income considered adequate in a particular country. The limit is based on a median income, i.e. one half of the citizens have an income higher than the median income, while the other half has an income lower than the median.

Citizens whose net income is less than 60 percent of the median income are regarded as living below the poverty line.

The median income in 2018 was DKK 246,000. Sixty percent of this amount is DKK 147,000.

Mostly elderly people

When the economy is strong, the median income can increase quickly, and then the poverty line goes up accordingly.

The 2018 figures show that 11.4 percent of the female population and 8.8. percent of the male population lived below the poverty line. A vast majority of these were aged 67 years or older.

In 2018, 255 people in the Faroes had a disposable income of more than DKK 1 million, and six of these people had a disposable income of more than DKK 4 million.

Translated by prosa.fo