Over 45% of Romanian Households Are Headed by a Pensioner

By Romania Journal Last updated Sep 13, 2024

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A research conducted by the National Institute of Statistics reveals that the largest share in the total number of 7.5 million families has those headed by a pensioner. There are 45.4% of such families or about 3.5 million in absolute terms (and increasing compared to the previous year).

When it comes to financial difficulties, the most vulnerable group is not pensioners but active individuals aged 50-64, according to the research published by the National Institute of Statistics.

The INS “Living Conditions of Romania’s Population” report 2024 highlights a significant increase in the number of families struggling to make ends meet.

Regarding the outstanding payments accumulated by families in Romania, the most frequent cases – 79.8% – are those with housing maintenance and those with electricity (75.0%), according to the INS. In rural areas, 18.2% of families specified that, in 2023, there was at least one situation in which they could not pay some of these important current expenses on time, more by about four percentage points compared to households in the urban environment.

If the members of households in the urban environment were more often in arrears in paying home maintenance expenses (85.9% of the households), in the rural area the highest percentage of arrears was mentioned for the payment of electricity expenses (84.3% of households). The phenomenon of arrears is more widespread in the case of households with children (17.8%), compared to those without children.

The study also shows that if they had a financial emergency (illness, death) that would require the allocation of more than 2,000 euros, more than 90% of Romanians would have to take out a loan to be able to cover it.

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