Assessment of living standards of the Ukrainian population

Abstract

The relevance of the article. The level of living standards as economic category characterizes not only the state of social and economic system but it is a necessary condition for its development. The relevance of scientific research on implementation of living standards of the country’s copulation is due to the need of systematization of economic features, which allow to determine objectively the level of poverty and will ensure the realization of an effective social state policy. Purpose setting is in the studying the population lives problems regarding the trade transformation of national economy and its reasons analyses, which lead to the high poverty level in Ukraine, and also the ways to overcome this phenomenon. Presentation of the main material. Poverty is a multifaceted socio-economic phenomenon that is inherent in any country in the world, regardless of its level of economic prosperity. Today, there are many interpretations that characterize “poverty” as a condition in which a person can not achieve the appropriate level of welfare in this society. The article deals with the causes of poverty and outlines the interdependent factors that influence it. It is defined that living standards of the population depends on the state of the national economy and its macroeconomic indicators (gross output of the enterprise per head of the population, rate of unemployment, real salaries and others). It is proved that the main reasons of poverty are classified into three groups: economic (low oncome, low spending capacity, social policy failure, unemployment and inflation), political (imperfection of the labor legislation, state social policy failure) and social (low level of accomplishments, the polarization of society, social vulnerability). In 2020 the poverty rate in Ukraine increased to 43 per cent, which means that nearly 6 million citizens are living below the poverty line, among which multi-child families, single parents with young children, families with children under age 3, single pensioners over 65 years of age are the most vulnerable categories. It is found out that barriers to getting out of the poverty are the following: reduction of market for the goods and services, monopoly existence and corruption. It is actualized that increasing of welfare payments doesn’t reduce the poverty problem in the country. Conclusions. Poverty is a socio-economic phenomenon in which a person cannot achieve the appropriate level of well-being in society. According to the World Bank, Ukraine “remains one of the poorest countries in the region” in terms of Gross Domestic Product per capita, and according to official UN data, more than 60% of Ukraine’s population is below the poverty line. And despite the statistics, raising the minimum wage should not be a top priority for social policy, and public institutions should use a variety of tools. Key words: living standards, poverty, social protection, income.