Housing cost burden in regions of Latvia

Abstract

Household financial hardship have been a rising concern of scholars and policy makers since income inequality in Latvia is very high and more than 23% of citizens are on risk of poverty, because housing costs typically represent the largest monthly expense for households. Special concern is about regions of Latvia where the level of living is lower than in cities and financial burden problem is increasing. The aim of the study is to analyse financial burden of housing costs in regions of Latvia. Research methods used in preparation of the paper: scientific publication and previous conducted research results analysis, analysis of EU-SILC results and European Central Bank conducted survey on Household income and expenses survey results, results are compared with the results of other EU countries. Survey results are analysed using indicators of descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations for regions of Latvia, for territories: urban-rural living and analysis of variance – ANOVA, for analysing financial burden of housing costs by regions and correlation analysis to analyse relationship of financial burden of housing costs and household composition are used. The results of analysis have indicated that situation in regions of Latvia in the context of housing conditions is very different and that there are very big challenges for decision makers to find recently the best possible solution.