Lithuania has been recognized as the poorest country in the European Union, according to an average poverty rate based on the time needed to earn 1 dollar, as reported by the Luxembourg Times.
According to a poverty assessment methodology developed by Oxford University, last year, earning 1 dollar in Luxembourg, the least poor EU country, required almost 21 minutes of work, while in Lithuania it was 76.4 minutes.
Thus, last year, Lithuania was 3.6 times poorer than Luxembourg and approximately 3 times poorer than the Netherlands, where it took 24 minutes to earn 1 dollar. In neighboring Poland, this figure was almost 44 minutes, and in Estonia, 51 minutes.
As previously reported by Lithuanian media, the at-risk-of-poverty rate in Lithuania reached 22.6% in 2025. Approximately 653 000 people lived below the at-risk-of-poverty line in the country.
