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Sources such as The Metro, Huffington Post and NY Daily News have cited examples of professional beggars, who are said to earn close to six-figure amounts yearly.

The Straight Dope mentions (regarding how much beggars earn):

In short, it's pretty hard to get good data on the issue.

Are there any reliable sources that show the actual existence of these professional beggars who earn six figure amounts (when converted to USD) yearly? ["Six-figure" means between $100,000 and $999,999 per year.] Additionally if possible, how prevalent are these professional beggars (as a percentage of total beggars?)

March Ho
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  • Many people become beggars because they are having trouble for a wide variety of reasons, but typically it means they unlikely to be in a position to run an extremely efficient business enterprise. Also the country and currency have an impact. – Mark Rogers Feb 20 '15 at 22:41
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    None of those sources claim a "six-figure amount yearly." NYDN says "up to" $100k which is close I guess, the Metro takes the figure for a "good friday or saturday night" and multiplies it by 365 but doesn't actually claim anyone makes that amount of money, the HP says someone claimed to have made $60k. – Matthew Towers Feb 21 '15 at 12:39

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It is very difficult to give an estimate. Beggars in Sweden are estimated to make 80 SEK (about 9.6 USD) an hourSR or between 1000-2000 SEK a monthSvD that would give an annual income of 2875 USD. Quite far from six figures.

Five or six years ago the Stockholm police checked beggars on commuter trains. They concluded that the beggars could get together between ten and forty kronor in quarter of an hour. It was later used to conclude that that beggars could get together 800 kronor in one day. Nowadays the Stockholm police believe that profit has gone down to 300-500 per day.

But, according to different estimates of voluntary organizations can provide around one thousand to two thousand kronor a month, according to Michael Anefur (Government's National Homelessness Coordinator).

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liftarn
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