Half of those living below the poverty line in Armenia don’t consider themselves poor, this according to a new study released by the country’s National Statistical Service (NSS).

In 2017, 25.7% of Armenia’s population lived under the poverty line pegged at 41,612 drams ($86) monthly. 1.4% of the population lived in extreme poverty; i.e., having a monthly income less than 24,269 drams ($50).

When asked if they considered themselves poor, in terms of standard of living, only 13.1% of respondents said they were “poor”, of which 1.1% labelled themselves as “extremely poor”.

41.8% said their standard of living was “average”, and an equal percentage said their standard of living was “below average”.

3.2% responded that their standard of living was “above average”, and 0.1% considered themselves “rich”.

When asked how much it would take on a monthly basis for a person to live “well” and “very well” in Armenia, the answers averaged out as 341,000 drams ($705) to live “well”, and 873,000 drams ($1,803) to live “very well”.

As to how much it would take monthly merely to survive in Armenia, the answers averaged out to 93,500 drams ($193).

The NSS surveyed 7,776 households in Armenia last year for these results.

29.6% of respondents over the age of 16 said housing was their major socio-economic issue, followed by an inadequate supply of non-comestibles (26.1%), adequate nourishment (10.3%), accessible health services (10.1%), and satisfactory education for children (3.3%).

31.7% of respondents over the age of 16 said it was up to the government to increase their standard of living and that they had no input in the matter.

31.9% responded that the next generation would live better than them and 27.2% said their children would be worse off.