THIRTY-FIVE per cent of Fiji’s population are the poorest and staying in rural areas while 32 per cent of the richest are residing in urban areas, the Fiji Bureau of Statistics Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS Plus 2024-2025) survey has found.
Released yesterday, data shows 26 per cent of Fiji’s population are classified as second poorest, 17 per cent as middle poorest and 16 per cent as fourth poorest as living in rural Fiji.
Only 8 per cent of Fijians in rural Fiji are rich.
In urban Fiji, 25 per cent are classified at fourth richest, 23 per cent are middle rich, 14 per cent are found to be second richest and 6 per cent Fijians in urban Fiji are the richest.
The survey found 97 per cent of household population are using improved sources of drinking water while 31 per cent of the household population did not have sufficient drinking water when needed in the last seven days.
When broken down, 32 per cent of the household population in urban Fiji and 29 per cent in rural population did not have sufficient drinking water when needed in the last seven days. The survey further found 39 per cent of the poorest and 21 per cent of the richest household population didn’t have sufficient drinking water when needed in the last seven days.
The survey found 89 per cent of Fijians have access to internet with those in urban and rural areas almost at the same level, with 92 per cent in urban and 87 per cent in rural having access to the world wide web.
Also, 98 per cent of Fijians have a smartphone, out of which 97 per cent of rural population are with a smartphone with the 98 per cent of urban dwellers also having a smartphone.
