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The results of a new Gallup poll indicate an increase in the number of Icelanders who know someone living in poverty.
RÚV reports on the results of the survey, last conducted in 2007. According to the findings, 35% of those polled said they knew someone in their family who was struggling with poverty. 23% said the same four years ago.
Additionally, 34% said that someone in their family had at one point been poor. Only 31% said that no one in their family was or ever had been poor.
What constitutes poverty was left to the subjective interpretation of those polled. This may in fact cast a more troubling light on the results – what was considered “poor” in the relatively booming times of 2007 might today be considered doing fairly well.
In terms of demographics, more women than men said they knew someone in their family living in poverty, as did more people living in the countryside than those living in the capital. Those with university degrees were less likely to know of anyone poor in their families than those without one.
Those who support the current government were less likely to know someone in their families struggling with poverty than those who oppose the government, 26% to 40%.
Statistically, long-term unemployment appears to be on the wane, but joblessness among foreigners is increasing.
(Photo: dv.is)