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Number of low income citizens in Norway increases: report

Xinhua, October 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

A recent report of Norway's statistics agency showed there has been an increased number of citizens that live on lasting low income, which is an indicator of increasing poverty, newspaper Aftenposten wrote on Thursday.

The Statistics Norway (SSB) report on the economy and living conditions for different low income groups 2016 also showed increased differences in income, the biggest ones being in Oslo.

According to the report, children with one parent have more than three times bigger possibility of ending up in the low income group than children with two parents.

Among those who have had such low income in three consecutive years are now fewer elders and more children and youth than before.

The SSB reported further that people with low income "live somewhat tighter and worse than others," which also pointed out that there is a bigger number among them who are struggling with living costs and payment problems.

Jon Epland, senior advisor in the SSB, said that they avoid using the words "poor people" in the organization, but confirmed that there had been an increased number of people with low income in comparison to those with medium income that make the average group of citizens in Norway.

He commented that there had been an increase to 9 percent of people who had had low income in three consecutive years from 2012 to 2014, not including students. In the period up to 2011 this quote was 7.7 percent.

"It is a clear and even increase," he said, adding that there were more people with lasting low income among those who have less than 60 or 50 percent of medium income to live with.

According to the report, there were 427,000 Norwegians who got 60 percent of medium income from 2012 to 2014, which was 204,000 kroner (24,992 U.S. dollars) or less after tax. There were 24,000 less people in this group in the previous three-year-period. Among those that got 50 percent of medium income or 170,000 kroner after tax, there were 190,000 Norwegians, which is 12,000 people more than before.

The difference between those who earned most and those with least income increased after the financial crisis in 2009.

Oslo is a special example, where one fifth of citizens with highest income earn roughly five times more than those who earn least. In the rest of Norway the highest earnings are only three and half times higher than the lowest ones. (1 U.S. dollar = 8.1626 Norwegian kroner) Endit