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Previous research suggest that widowhood may be linked with worse financial situation and higher poverty risk. The proposed paper’s goal is to shed new light on the financial wellbeing of older widows by using both objective and subjective measures. Widowed and married older women were analyzed based on Polish sample from Generations and Gender Survey, 1^st wave. Logit models were estimated for subjective (perceived financial difficulty, material deprivation) and objective measures (living below absolute / relative poverty line). Also, with selected measures I use different criteria for financial wellbeing – some are more “strict” than the others. Results indicate that in older age widows are ceteris paribus in worse financial situation than married women. When lowering the poverty line, in general, the risk increases, suggesting that widows are concentrated more in lower-end pensions. What’s more, objective measures picture older widows in worse financial circumstances than subjective indexes – potentially because the latter capture better the factors that may buffer financial difficulties.

older age;widowhood;widows;older women;poverty;financial wellbeing;financial difficulties;marriage