The structural dimension of poverty in Ukraine

Abstract

Poverty is one of the most painful socio-economic problems of Ukraine. Finding the confirmation of a high level of poverty and the specifics of the causes of poverty in Ukraine was the purpose of this paper. The gist of the concept of “poverty” in modern science and the peculiarities of the discussion about it as well as the problems of the method of its definition, in particular at the national level, are all the subject matter of the paper. The political and economic situation is the main cause of poverty in Ukraine. The dynamics of the main monetary indicators of poverty is analyzed. A particular attention is paid to the study of the structural aspects of poverty in relation to demographic criteria and criteria of settlement. The most critical groups of inhabitants on the basis of structural analysis were identified and mechanisms for overcoming this phenomenon in Ukraine were proposed. Based on the conducted research it can be stated that age and social structures, place of residence and employment are the main criteria of differentiating the poor in Ukraine. The research methods such as comparative analysis, statistical analysis of data, own calculations and literature review have been applied. The data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine and the Institute for Demography and Social Research were used.