Settlement for internally displaced persons in Saguramo, Georgia

Social situation High unemployment rate

Due to the Abkhazia and South Ossetia conflicts, there are more than 250,000 internally displaced persons in Georgia. Their displacement is exacerbating poverty in the country, which is already severe.

According to World Bank figures, unemployment was 14.5 per cent in 2019. However, that rate does not take account of smallholders engaged in subsistence farming or of the countless day labourers, petty traders and own-account workers. According to estimates, the actual unemployment rate in rural areas is about 40 per cent. In surveys, around 70 per cent of the population describe themselves as underemployed. The latest Human Development Index ranks Georgia 61st out of 189 countries (HDI).

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