MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. The number of Russians with incomes below the subsistence level amounted to 19.6 mln people or 13.3% in January-September 2020. In the Q3, the number of poor people increased by 1.2 mln compared to the same period in 2019 and amounted to 18.8 mln, according to the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) materials.

It was noted that in 2019 for 9 months there were 19.2 mln poor people (13.1%) in Russia.

"Compared to the third quarter of 2019, the number of poor people increased by 1.2 mln people, or 0.8 percentage points," Rosstat said in a statement. In 2019, for the third quarter, the number of poor people was 17.6 mln.

According to the data, the cost of living for the Q3 of 2020 amounted to 12,542 rubles ($165.19) for the working-age population, 9,519 rubles ($125.37) for pensioners and 11,580 rubles ($152.52) for children.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that the number of poor people in Russia should decrease by 9.6 mln people by 2030.

In July 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin set a goal to halve the country's poverty rate compared to 2017 by 2030. Earlier, the target was set by the President for 2024. In turn, Russian Minister of Labor Anton Kotyakov said earlier that it would be quite difficult to achieve this goal by 2024.

Meanwhile, the number of unemployed in Russia in 2020, according to preliminary data, amounted to about 4.321 mln people, which is 24.7% higher than in 2019, Rosstat said.

Also, the number of unemployed in December 2020 amounted to about 4.433 mln people, which is 4% less than in November 2020. At the same time, in December 2020, unemployment in Russia increased by 27.6% compared to December 2019

The total share of unemployed among the working-age population in 2020 was 5.9%, the Federal State Statistics Service said. The number of officially registered unemployed in December 2020 amounted to 2.8 mln people, including 1.3 mln people receiving unemployment benefits.

The federal budget for 2021 provides that unemployment in Russia will drop below 5% by the end of the year, which corresponds to the "natural" level.

According to the forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development, real incomes of Russians in 2020 will decrease by 3% and will grow by 3% in 2021.