Serbia has recorded substantial improvements in several measures of material living standards, but a significant proportion of the population remains exposed to poverty or financial insecurity, according to the September report by MAT. The figures point to differences in household purchasing capacity that are not captured by average income trends alone.
Poverty and Social Exclusion Rate Falls to 23.2%
MAT reports that Serbia’s risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) stood at 23.2%, compared with 43.2% at the beginning of the period examined. The decline indicates an improvement in the indicator over the period covered by the report, although almost one in four people remain at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
The report also records a reduction in subjective poverty, which measures reported financial difficulty. This indicator stood at 31.1% in 2025, down from 64.6% in 2013. Despite the improvement, Serbia’s figure remained above the EU average of 17.6% cited in the report. These indicators measure different aspects of household conditions. AROPE is a composite measure, while subjective poverty reflects how people assess their own financial circumstances. Neither should be treated as interchangeable with a material-deprivation indicator covering a narrower population.
Material Deprivation Among Employed People Declines
A separate measure presented by MAT shows that severe material deprivation among employed people fell from 31.3% in 2014 to 6.2% in 2025. This indicator applies specifically to employed people and therefore covers a different population from measures assessing poverty or social exclusion across the population as a whole. Its figures should not be compared directly with those broader indicators.
Taken together, the reported statistics show improvements across several dimensions of living standards. The measures capture different experiences and do not, on their own, establish the reasons people continue to report financial difficulty.
Household Purchasing Power and Consumer Demand
For businesses assessing Serbia’s consumer market, the distribution of purchasing power is important alongside changes in average income. Households under financial pressure may remain sensitive to price increases and delay discretionary purchases even when aggregate earnings improve. The figures therefore indicate that purchasing capacity remains uneven across households. The reported statistics do not establish why people experience financial difficulty, nor do they demonstrate that perceptions of financial hardship result from any single political, cultural or psychological cause.
MAT’s broader interpretation of the findings remains distinct from the statistical results themselves. The data show a reduction in the reported poverty and deprivation indicators, while the 23.2% risk-of-poverty-or-social-exclusion rate indicates that a substantial share of Serbia’s population continues to face conditions that may constrain spending decisions.
