This paper examines poverty in transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkan and former Soviet Union. The outcome of this research emphasized that unemployment, inflation and state desertion generally increased people's vulnerability to poverty, with large regional fluctuations. Poverty is associated with insufficient food and clothing, poor housing, limited access to utilities, poorer health and less access to healthcare, social exclusion, and psychological suffering. Coping strategies include household food production, resource pooling, multiple job holding, migration, dietary and other consumption changes, as well as household disintegration, alcoholism and suicide. Especially vulnerable to poverty are households in remote rural areas, most ethnic minorities, children, women, and single elderly people. Selected studies from Russia and Hungary indicate that there also is a “core” of longterm
poor.