The paper presents the national experience in poverty measurement in the Republic of Belarus.
The main source of information about poverty for both the population as a whole and
households in the country and specific social and demographic groups is a sample household
living standards survey. The report provides a definition of the national poverty line (an
absolute poverty line set as official poverty measure) as well as the methodology for calculation
of the main indicator of well-being – average per capita household disposable resources,
including the use of the national equivalence scale. It also presents relative and subjective
approaches to poverty assessment, as well as main approaches to understanding the nature of
poverty using the material deprivation theory.