Penza, 19 January 2015. PenzaNews. Penza, along with Tolyatti, Astrakhan, Volgograd and Saratov, was called one of the most problematic Russian cities in terms of poverty in a 2014 study conducted in 35 cities with population over 500,000by the Department of Sociology of the University of Finance under the Government of the Russian Federation.

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In the course of sociological research, Russian citizens were asked to rate their income situation using the following scale: a) hardly enough money for food; b) enough money only for food and household essentials; c) able to buy large household appliances (a fridge or a washing machine); d) able to buy a new car; e) enough money for everything, including a new flat or house.

According to classification used in the study, those who chose a) are critically poor, and those who chose a) and b) together form strata of financially disadvantaged citizens.

The study also determined the proportion of people low-income and the critically poor among young people (aged 18-30), and just young men of the same age.

The poverty index was calculated using six indicators: the percentage of critically poor men aged 18-30 in the city population; the percentage of low-income young citizens aged 18-30; the percentage of critically poor young men and women aged 18-30; the percentage of low-income young men and women aged 18-30; the percentage of critically poor city residents; the percentage of low-income residents.

The final index of poverty in Russian cities was determined as a simple average of indicators above: the higher the index, the worse the poverty situation.

The lowest poverty levels were registered in Vladivostok, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Kazan and Tyumen, who scored below 0.25 in poverty index.

The final poverty index of Penza city was calculated at 0.6, which is next only to Astrakhan and Tolyatti, who were assigned poverty levels of 0.68 and 0.8 respectively.

According to the presented results, Penza city scored 0.41 in the proportion of critically poor young citizens, 0.76 for low-income young people, 0.78 for critically poor young people, 0.62 for low-income youth, 0.45 for critically poor people, and 0.58 for low-income residents.