About 258,053 Fijians were living in poverty pre-COVID

About 258,053 Fijians were living in poverty pre-COVID.

This is according to the estimates in the 2019-2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey which was conducted from February 2019 to February 2020.

The Fiji Bureau of Statistics says the estimates provided in the release are based on the information reported by a representative sample of 6,000 households to provide the overall estimates of the income and expenditures of the 864,132 Fijians living in 199,688 conventional households during the survey period.

The Bureau of Statistics says the National Basic Needs Poverty Line for 2019-20 was estimated at $2,179.39 per adult equivalent per year, or $41.91 per adult equivalent per week.

The statistics also shows that 62.2%  of the people in poverty resided in rural areas.

At the household level, 45,724 households lived below the poverty line.

The average annual household income for 2019-20 was $26,249, with the median at $20,727 per household.

The Bureau of Stats also says a new Basic Needs Poverty Line was constructed for the 2019-20 survey and this was done due to a combination of reasons, including updating the methodology to reflect new global and regional standards and to reflect changes in the Fijian society’s living standard since the last Basic Needs Poverty Line was constructed in 2002-03.