Is Lithuania A Poor Country Or Rich Country?

So I was thinking about doing a video about Lithuania’s main sources of economic activity. But during my early google searches, I found this other question under the “People Also Ask” section of google: Is Lithuania A Rich Country or a Poor country?

I thought this was a much more intriguing question and topic to cover - and so that’s the question we will try to answer for today’s video.

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Data sources:

[ihavegreeneyes]

The issue we have that makes us different from say UK or France is that a huge portion of our oldest generations have no wealth at all, besides maybe a soviet-built flat or run-down house in the countryside. People in Western Europe have been building wealth for at least 2/3 generations now, while we have had only 30 years to do so under 'normal' capitalistic society. Oldest people in Western Europe have quite a lot of wealth from private workplace pension funds and private home ownerships/rent, which is not the case in Lithuania.

[HelloHi-gu]

Lithuania felt very rich and successful to me when I visited this year. Far better than Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Italy. Also it felt far safer and cleaner than these countries mentioned as well. I kept saying to my boyfriend “damn if things keep improving here for like 10 more years it’s going to feel like Sweden or Finland!” Some of the new apartments being built in Kaunas are gorgeous by the way, so modern and hot. I travel around the world and work from my computer and out of 61 countries Lithuania is one of my top 10 favorites.

[hanshoffmann]

People forget that we were just like North Korea 30 years ago, and the first 10 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union were complete mess when the government couldn't function and no real development took place.. Just compare North Korea and South Korea, you wouldn't expect North Korea reach South Korean economic levels when they are 50 times richer in just a few decades.. So I am quite happy with what we achieved in the last two decades. None of these rich western countries had that kind of extreme difficulties and we already surpassed some of them in a lot of the metrics not to mention almost the entirety of the World(we are literally richer than 94% of the Worlds population according to GDP PPP metrics) and most of Eastern Europe.

[sirgalahad]

I just landed here from the US and am staying the week in the old town of Vilnius. This morning, I got out to go for a walk and explore the old town, which by the way, is spectacularly beautiful. In a span of 4 hours I saw the following: Ferrari 488 Daytona, Ferrari California, Porsche 911 GT3, Lamborghini Urus, several Bently SUVs, a 1960 fully restored Jaguar XK150, Ford Ranger Raptor, Audi R8, Porsche Carrera 4S, Porsche Targa 4S, and so many M class BMWs I couldn't count them all. I'm thinking "Am I in London, or am I really in Lithuania"? So, my one day impression is that Lithuanians are rich lol

[josephkrizauskas]

My Grandparents left Lithuania for Pennsylvania, JAV for a better life in 1910. THAT Lithuania was much worse than today's Lithuania. Count your blessings. Lithuania has a bright future if you keep moving forward and don't give up.

[harshenvy]

what i’ve learned through the last couple of years is that any country, that is not in war and whose people can live stable lives, counting on the future is a rich country

[aistisnavickas]

Those families, which are living in the run down houses near the centre, have the most expensive houses in Vilnius, because the government would give them probably millions to close sshop and move somewhere else, yet they persist.

[Littlesober]

It's very simple. If you live in Vilnius or other major cities, you earn and spend a lot more than the rest.

However, Lithuania has been on a rise for the last 30 years since independence and there's no slowing down, it's always up from there. The fact is, life just keeps getting better as time goes on. There are tough times when it's tough for everyone, but it's okay.

[sazarkanas]

i would say we are rich country comparing ourselves not to EU and big 8 standard, but to the rest of the world. we are not money rich, but in Lithuania you will not die from starvation, unclean water, relative minor health problems. we have ability to access free higher education, free public wifi in some places and finally government support programs that should help people stand up on their feet

[gytisnavakauskas]

Speaking of Vilnius
It's safe, clean and chill city. Hospitality industry is NOT based on tourist, so quality of reataurants, bars, coffe shops in old town top notch (to me top 3 in europe)

Average salary(after tax) ~1200eur
Good salary ~1800eur
IT spec, finance sector(sales, team lead, analitics) 2000-3000eur
Taxes are high .. 42%
But for bussines it's great. With good accountant you will pay max 18%
Profit margins are large as well.
So at the moment it's okey ish for average Joe, but gold mine for entrepreneur.

[tomekdarda]

Quite a thorough research! I had no clue Nord and Vinted were Lithuanian. All in all, the most developed countries of the former Eastern Bloc have advanced so significantly within the last 30 years that they can by no means be called poor, when taking the world as a whole. I bet they sit comfortably within the 10-15% of the most prosperous places on Earth. I call it the ariergarde of the avangarde :)

[PijusONLINE]

07:04 My only issue with this is that these people are actual literal millionaires, as grumpy and unwilling to cooperate with property developers as they may be.

An identical-looking shack somewhere on the border with Belarus would qualify one for poverty, but not those specific central business district ones. As soon as they agree to sell, something new gets built.

[Erlandas_]

i think its kinda important to note, that those 'poverty' houses near CBD of vilnius are worth like a mill each lol

[jonasjonava]

We need to appreciate what we have. To be rich you need to work hard. No "Landsbergis" will bring you a suitcase of dollars. You, in free Lithuania, have the conditions to become rich. Everything is in your hands. Lithuania. Kaunas 1000k❤️ Ukraine!!!🇱🇹❤️🇺🇦❤️🇺 🇸❤️🇪🇺❤️🇪🇪❤️🇲🇨

[joris]

Great video! I actually come from a rural area in the northern Suvalkija region. I do think Lithuania is getting richer and the people are not as poor as they used to be. Of course the inflation is screwing everything up at the moment, but the signs are here that in the coming years it will be much better than now once inflation is resolved.

[jorislal]

Those families living in "run down housing" are very wealthy as they sit on the land worth millions. Some of them just refuse to sell it cause they want more. It's an annoying situation as it's an area near the city center where people technically have high NET worth given the land they own but have little disposable income so their houses just keep trashing the capital.

[gintarasvaidziulis]

In lithuanian is word "pasiturintis" that mean someone with enough wealth but not rich. I think that would be best description at this moment.

[roborme]

I agree, the answer is definately, "Yes", :)
It is very hard to answer one way or the other reguardless of how you look at it. I agree with some of the others who commented (and you mention in the video) that there are signs of wealth throughout Vilnius. Expensive cars, high property prices, etc. But then travel an hour from the capital (or even 25 minutes in some directions) and as long as you are not in a tourist area like Trakai or a large city, there are small villages in all directions where people will live at a small fraction of the cost of living. In some villigaes the price of the average house is only 15-20% of what the average house/apartment would be just outside Vilnius. My mother in-law and most of her her relatives live in a small community not too far from Vilnius and I could not believe on how little money they needed to get by very comfortably with.
Of course the houses and apartments are older but maintained and comfortable.
I thing (It appears to me) that in a lot of these smaller villages, an older generation who have always been used to that lifestyle seems very content, but when their cost of living and average income is included with the "Modern" portion of Lithuania, it skews the numbers which may be why the numbers contradict them selves.

[kisutis]

I have French friends, who visited first Lithuania like 5 years ago… and when they saw cars, prices of shoes and clothes… also some food products.. they asked me why Lithuania asks for EU support and complain of being poor.. and it was not just vilnius… we visited many cities in Lithuania…

[Zoli]

I'm from Hungary in Lithuania (now Finland a little). Hungary is more rundown overall than Lithuania.