List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty

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World map of poverty gap index at $2.15 a day (2017 PPP) (% of population). Poverty-gap-index-at-215-int-per-day-povcal.png
World map of poverty gap index at $2.15 a day (2017 PPP) (% of population).
Share of population living below national poverty lines. Share-of-population-living-in-poverty-by-national-poverty-lines.png
Share of population living below national poverty lines.

This is a list of countries by percentage of population living in poverty, as recorded by World Bank and Our World in Data.

Contents

Methodology

"Poverty" is defined as an economic condition by the lack of both money and basic necessities needed to live successfully, such as food, water, utilities, and housing. There are many working definitions of "poverty", with considerable debate on the most accurate definition of the term.

Lack of income security, economic stability and the predictability of one's continued means to meet basic needs all serve as absolute indicators of poverty. Poverty may therefore also be defined as the economic condition of lacking predictable and stable means of meeting basic life needs.

The first table lists countries by the percentage of their population with an income of less than $2.15 (the extreme poverty line), $3.65 and $6.85 US dollars a day in 2017 international (PPP) prices. The data is from the most recent year available from the World Bank API. [1] [3] [4]

As differences in price levels across the world evolve, the global poverty line has to be periodically updated to reflect these changes. The World Bank updated the global poverty lines in September 2022. The decision follows the release in 2020 of new purchasing power parities (PPPs)—the main data used to convert different currencies into a common, comparable unit and account for price differences across countries. The new extreme poverty line of $2.15 per person per day, which replaces the $1.90 poverty line, is based on 2017 PPPs. [5] This means that anyone living on less than $2.15 a day is considered to be living in extreme poverty. About 648 million people globally were in this situation in 2019. [5]

The second table lists countries by the percentage of the population living below the national poverty line—the poverty line deemed appropriate for a country by its authorities. National estimates are based on population-weighted subgroup estimates from household surveys. [2]

Definitions of the poverty line vary considerably among nations. For example, rich nations generally employ more generous standards of poverty than poor nations. Even among rich nations, the standards differ greatly. Thus, the numbers are not comparable among countries. Even when nations do use the same method, some issues may remain. [6]

Only countries for which sourced data is available are listed. Data for some countries, including Libya and Saudi Arabia, remains unavailable. It was usually accepted that over one third (33.3%) of the population in Libya and Saudi Arabia were living in the previous decade below the poverty line. [7] [8]

Percent of population living on less than $2.15, $3.65 and $6.85 a day

Percent of population (including non-citizens) living on less than $2.15, $3.65 and $6.85 a day, international (PPP) dollars as per the World Bank and Our World in Data. [1] [3] [4] [2] Sorting is by country code.

Percent of population living below national poverty line

The percentage of the population living below national poverty line (%) – poverty line deemed appropriate for a country by its authorities (however definitions of the poverty line vary considerably among nations). Sorting is by country code.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extreme poverty</span> Condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs

Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services". Historically, other definitions have been proposed within the United Nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of Gabon</span>

The economy of Gabon is characterized by strong links with France, large foreign investments, dependence on skilled foreign labor, and decline of agriculture. Gabon on paper enjoys a per capita income four times that of most nations of Africa, but its reliance on resource extraction industry fail to release much of the population from extreme poverty, as much of 30% of the population lives under the poverty threshold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of Maldives</span>

In ancient times, Maldives were renowned for cowries, coir rope, dried tuna fish, ambergris (maavaharu) and coco de mer (tavakkaashi). Local and foreign trading ships used to load these products in the Maldives and bring them abroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of the Republic of the Congo</span>

The economy of the Republic of the Congo is a mixture of subsistence hunting and agriculture, an industrial sector based largely on petroleum extraction and support services. Government spending is characterized by budget problems and overstaffing. Petroleum has supplanted forestry as the mainstay of the economy, providing a major share of government revenues and exports. Nowadays the Republic of the Congo is increasingly converting natural gas to electricity rather than burning it, greatly improving energy prospects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poverty</span> Lack of financial assets or possessions

Poverty is a state or condition in which one lacks the financial resources and essentials for a certain standard of living. Poverty can have diverse environmental, legal, social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in statistics or economics there are two main measures: absolute poverty compares income against the amount needed to meet basic personal needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter; relative poverty measures when a person cannot meet a minimum level of living standards, compared to others in the same time and place. The definition of relative poverty varies from one country to another, or from one society to another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poverty threshold</span> Minimum income deemed adequate to live in a specific country or place

The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for the average adult. The cost of housing, such as the rent for an apartment, usually makes up the largest proportion of this estimate, so economists track the real estate market and other housing cost indicators as a major influence on the poverty line. Individual factors are often used to account for various circumstances, such as whether one is a parent, elderly, a child, married, etc. The poverty threshold may be adjusted annually. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries.

Poverty in Australia deals with the incidence of relative poverty in Australia and its measurement. Relative income poverty is measured as a percentage of the population that earns less in comparison to the median wage of the working population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poverty in India</span>

Poverty in India remains a major challenge despite overall reductions in the last several decades as its economy grows. According to an International Monetary Fund paper, extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as living on US$1.9 or less in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, in India was as low as 0.8% in 2019, and the country managed to keep it at that level in 2020 despite the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak. According to World Bank, extreme poverty has reduced by 12.3% between 2011 and 2019 from 22.5% in 2011 to 10.2% in 2019. A working paper of the bank said rural poverty declined from 26.3% in 2011 to 11.6% in 2019. The decline in urban areas was from 14.2% to 6.3% in the same period.The poverty level in rural and urban areas went down by 14.7 and 7.9 percentage points, respectively. According to United Nations Development Programme administrator Achim Steiner, India lifted 271 million people out of extreme poverty in a 10-year time period from 2005–2006 to 2015–2016. A 2020 study from the World Economic Forum found "Some 220 million Indians sustained on an expenditure level of less than Rs 32 / day—the poverty line for rural India—by the last headcount of the poor in India in 2013."

Poverty in Pakistan has been recorded by the World Bank at 39.3% using the lower middle-income poverty rate of US$3.2 per day for the fiscal year 2020–21. In September 2021, the government stated that 22% percent of its population lives below the national poverty line set at Rs. 3030 (US$10) per month.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Measuring poverty</span> Overview about the measure of poverty

Poverty is measured in different ways by different bodies, both governmental and nongovernmental. Measurements can be absolute, which references a single standard, or relative, which is dependent on context. Poverty is widely understood to be multidimensional, comprising social, natural and economic factors situated within wider socio-political processes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poverty in China</span> Economic issues in China

In China today, poverty refers mainly to the rural poor. Decades of economic development has reduced urban extreme poverty. According to the World Bank, more than 850 million Chinese people have been lifted out of extreme poverty; China's poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015, as measured by the percentage of people living on the equivalent of US$1.90 or less per day in 2011 purchasing price parity terms, which still stands in 2022.

Poverty in South America is prevalent in most of its countries. Those that have the highest rates of poverty per population are Suriname, Bolivia and Venezuela. Recent political shifts in the region have led to improvements in some of these countries. In general, most South American economies have attempted to tackle poverty with stronger economic regulations, foreign direct investments and implementation of microeconomic policies to reduce poverty.

This article includes several ranked indicators for Chile's regions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multidimensional Poverty Index</span> Range of poverty indicators

Multidimensional Poverty Indices use a range of indicators to calculate a summary poverty figure for a given population, in which a larger figure indicates a higher level of poverty. This figure considers both the proportion of the population that is deemed poor, and the 'breadth' of poverty experienced by these 'poor' households, following the Alkire & Foster 'counting method'. The method was developed following increased criticism of monetary and consumption based poverty measures, seeking to capture the deprivations in non-monetary factors that contribute towards well-being. While there is a standard set of indicators, dimensions, cutoffs and thresholds used for a 'Global MPI', the method is flexible and there are many examples of poverty studies that modify it to best suit their environment. The methodology has been mainly, but not exclusively, applied to developing countries.

The poverty gap index is a measure of the degree of poverty. It is defined as extent to which individuals on average fall below the poverty line, and expresses it as a percentage of the poverty line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colombia and the World Bank</span>

Colombia has a long-standing relationship with the World Bank that started in 1946 when the country signed the IBRD Articles of Agreement. During the early years of the World Bank, which was founded in 1945, Colombia served as a main strategic partner when the focus of the institution shifted from the reconstruction of Europe to assisting the development in poor countries. The subsequent cooperation between the World Bank and the country has led to a variety of different projects being implemented. As of November 2018 there has been to a total of over 280 projects, of which 20 are presently active, in an array of sectors such as assistance of the central government, the sub-national government and social protection. The current active commitment amount is US$2.3 billion.

Turkey made steady progress in reducing poverty from the early 2000s to the mid-2010s.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Poverty headcount ratio at $2.15 a day (2017 PPP) (% of population)". World Bank . Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines (% of population)". The World Bank IBRD-IDA. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Poverty headcount ratio at $3.65 a day (2017 PPP) (% of population)". World Bank . Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Poverty headcount ratio at $6.85 a day (2017 PPP) (% of population)". World Bank . Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  5. 1 2 World Bank. "Fact Sheet: An Adjustment to Global Poverty Lines". The World Bank IBRD-IDA. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
  6. " "Inequality watch". Archived from the original on 30 April 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2014." Eurostat 2010
  7. "Libya Economy 2017, CIA World Factbook". www.theodora.com.
  8. One third of the Saudi Arabia's population lives under the poverty line Archived 2016-05-09 at the Wayback Machine , 5 August 2013
  9. "Share of population living below national poverty lines, 1985 to 2020". Our World in Data . Retrieved 28 October 2023.