Poverty headcount ratio at $1.90 a day (2011 PPP) (% of population) - Country Ranking

Definition: Poverty headcount ratio at $1.90 a day is the percentage of the population living on less than $1.90 a day at 2011 international prices. As a result of revisions in PPP exchange rates, poverty rates for individual countries cannot be compared with poverty rates reported in earlier editions.

Source: World Bank, Development Research Group. Data are based on primary household survey data obtained from government statistical agencies and World Bank country departments. Data for high-income economies are from the Luxembourg Income Study database. For mor

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

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Rank Country Value Year
1 Madagascar 78.80 2012
2 Dem. Rep. Congo 77.20 2012
3 Malawi 73.50 2019
4 Burundi 72.80 2013
5 Somalia 68.60 2017
6 Central African Republic 65.90 2008
7 Mozambique 63.70 2014
8 Uzbekistan 61.60 2003
9 Zambia 58.70 2015
10 Rwanda 56.50 2016
11 Angola 49.90 2018
12 Turkmenistan 49.80 1998
13 Tanzania 49.40 2018
14 Liberia 44.40 2016
15 Sierra Leone 43.00 2018
16 Niger 41.40 2018
17 Uganda 41.00 2019
18 Congo 39.60 2011
19 Zimbabwe 39.50 2019
20 Nigeria 39.10 2018
21 Papua New Guinea 38.00 2009
22 Kenya 37.10 2015
23 Burkina Faso 33.70 2018
24 Chad 33.20 2018
25 Ethiopia 30.80 2015
26 Eswatini 29.20 2016
27 Lesotho 27.20 2017
28 Cameroon 26.00 2014
29 São Tomé and Principe 25.60 2017
30 Solomon Islands 24.70 2012
30 Guinea-Bissau 24.70 2018
32 Haiti 24.50 2012
33 Togo 24.10 2018
34 Guinea 23.20 2018
35 India 22.50 2011
36 Timor-Leste 22.00 2014
37 Suriname 21.10 1999
38 Benin 19.20 2018
39 Comoros 19.10 2014
40 South Africa 18.70 2014
41 Yemen 18.30 2014
42 Djibouti 17.00 2017
43 Mali 16.30 2018
44 Nepal 15.00 2010
45 Honduras 14.80 2019
46 Botswana 14.50 2015
47 Bangladesh 14.30 2016
48 Belize 13.90 1999
49 Namibia 13.80 2015
50 Ghana 12.70 2016
51 Sudan 12.20 2014
52 Guyana 11.80 1998
53 The Gambia 10.30 2015
53 Colombia 10.30 2020
55 Lao PDR 10.00 2018
56 Côte d'Ivoire 9.20 2018
57 Guatemala 8.80 2014
58 Vanuatu 8.60 2019
59 Senegal 7.60 2018
60 Venezuela 6.70 2006
61 Ecuador 6.50 2020
62 Mauritania 6.00 2014
63 St. Lucia 4.60 2016
64 Bolivia 4.40 2020
64 Peru 4.40 2020
66 Georgia 4.20 2020
67 Tajikistan 4.10 2015
68 Egypt 3.80 2017
69 Pakistan 3.60 2018
70 Nicaragua 3.40 2014
70 Gabon 3.40 2017
70 Cabo Verde 3.40 2015
70 North Macedonia 3.40 2018
74 Tuvalu 3.30 2010
75 Trinidad and Tobago 3.20 1992
76 Mexico 3.10 2020
77 Montenegro 2.90 2018
78 Philippines 2.70 2018
79 Serbia 2.30 2019
80 Indonesia 2.20 2021
81 Costa Rica 2.10 2020
82 Romania 2.00 2019
83 Fiji 1.80 2019
83 Vietnam 1.80 2018
85 Brazil 1.70 2020
85 Iraq 1.70 2012
85 Jamaica 1.70 2004
88 Argentina 1.60 2020
89 Bhutan 1.50 2017
89 Italy 1.50 2018
91 Myanmar 1.40 2017
92 Kiribati 1.30 2019
92 El Salvador 1.30 2019
94 Panama 1.20 2019
95 Kyrgyz Republic 1.10 2020
95 Samoa 1.10 2013
97 Tonga 1.00 2015
97 United States 1.00 2019
99 Syrian Arab Republic 0.90 2003
99 Morocco 0.90 2013
99 Sri Lanka 0.90 2016
99 Nauru 0.90 2012
99 Bulgaria 0.90 2019
104 Dominican Republic 0.80 2020
104 Spain 0.80 2019
104 Paraguay 0.80 2020
107 Japan 0.70 2013
107 Chile 0.70 2020
107 Greece 0.70 2019
110 Austria 0.60 2019
110 Iran 0.60 2019
112 Lithuania 0.50 2019
112 Australia 0.50 2018
112 Seychelles 0.50 2018
112 Estonia 0.50 2019
112 Mongolia 0.50 2018
117 Algeria 0.40 2011
117 Armenia 0.40 2020
117 Turkey 0.40 2019
120 Sweden 0.30 2019
120 United Kingdom 0.30 2017
120 Denmark 0.30 2019
120 Malta 0.30 2019
120 Croatia 0.30 2019
120 Hungary 0.30 2019
126 Israel 0.20 2018
126 Latvia 0.20 2019
126 Norway 0.20 2019
126 Tunisia 0.20 2015
126 Uruguay 0.20 2020
126 Mauritius 0.20 2017
126 Korea 0.20 2016
126 Canada 0.20 2017
126 Cyprus 0.20 2019
126 Poland 0.20 2018
136 Belgium 0.10 2019
136 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.10 2011
136 China 0.10 2019
136 Slovak Republic 0.10 2019
136 Portugal 0.10 2019
136 Netherlands 0.10 2019
136 Luxembourg 0.10 2019
136 Jordan 0.10 2010
144 Kazakhstan 0.00 2018
144 Iceland 0.00 2017
144 Ireland 0.00 2018
144 France 0.00 2018
144 Lebanon 0.00 2011
144 Moldova 0.00 2019
144 Malaysia 0.00 2015
144 Ukraine 0.00 2020
144 Albania 0.00 2019
144 Czech Republic 0.00 2019
144 Russia 0.00 2020
144 Slovenia 0.00 2019
144 Finland 0.00 2019
144 Belarus 0.00 2020
144 United Arab Emirates 0.00 2018
144 Azerbaijan 0.00 2005
144 Germany 0.00 2018
144 Switzerland 0.00 2018
144 Thailand 0.00 2020

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Development Relevance: The World Bank Group is committed to reducing extreme poverty to 3 percent or less, globally, by 2030. Monitoring poverty is important on the global development agenda as well as on the national development agenda of many countries. The World Bank produced its first global poverty estimates for developing countries for World Development Report 1990: Poverty (World Bank 1990) using household survey data for 22 countries (Ravallion, Datt, and van de Walle 1991). Since then there has been considerable expansion in the number of countries that field household income and expenditure surveys. The World Bank's Development Research Group maintains a database that is updated annually as new survey data become available (and thus may contain more recent data or revisions) and conducts a major reassessment of progress against poverty every year. PovcalNet is an interactive computational tool that allows users to replicate these internationally comparable $1.90, $3.20 and $5.50 a day global, regional and country-level poverty estimates and to compute poverty measures for custom country groupings and for different poverty lines. The Poverty and Equity Data portal provides access to the database and user-friendly dashboards with graphs and interactive maps that visualize trends in key poverty and inequality indicators for different regions and countries. The country dashboards display trends in poverty measures based on the national poverty lines alongside the internationally comparable estimates, produced from and consistent with PovcalNet.

Limitations and Exceptions: Despite progress in the last decade, the challenges of measuring poverty remain. The timeliness, frequency, quality, and comparability of household surveys need to increase substantially, particularly in the poorest countries. The availability and quality of poverty monitoring data remains low in small states, countries with fragile situations, and low-income countries and even some middle-income countries. The low frequency and lack of comparability of the data available in some countries create uncertainty over the magnitude of poverty reduction. Besides the frequency and timeliness of survey data, other data quality issues arise in measuring household living standards. The surveys ask detailed questions on sources of income and how it was spent, which must be carefully recorded by trained personnel. Income is generally more difficult to measure accurately, and consumption comes closer to the notion of living standards. And income can vary over time even if living standards do not. But consumption data are not always available: the latest estimates reported here use consumption data for about two-thirds of countries. However, even similar surveys may not be strictly comparable because of differences in timing or in the quality and training of enumerators. Comparisons of countries at different levels of development also pose a potential problem because of differences in the relative importance of the consumption of nonmarket goods. The local market value of all consumption in kind (including own production, particularly important in underdeveloped rural economies) should be included in total consumption expenditure but may not be. Most survey data now include valuations for consumption or income from own production, but valuation methods vary.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: International comparisons of poverty estimates entail both conceptual and practical problems. Countries have different definitions of poverty, and consistent comparisons across countries can be difficult. Local poverty lines tend to have higher purchasing power in rich countries, where more generous standards are used, than in poor countries. Since World Development Report 1990, the World Bank has aimed to apply a common standard in measuring extreme poverty, anchored to what poverty means in the world's poorest countries. The welfare of people living in different countries can be measured on a common scale by adjusting for differences in the purchasing power of currencies. The commonly used $1 a day standard, measured in 1985 international prices and adjusted to local currency using purchasing power parities (PPPs), was chosen for World Development Report 1990 because it was typical of the poverty lines in low-income countries at the time. As differences in the cost of living across the world evolve, the international poverty line has to be periodically updated using new PPP price data to reflect these changes. The last change was in October 2015, when we adopted $1.90 as the international poverty line using the 2011 PPP. Prior to that, the 2008 update set the international poverty line at $1.25 using the 2005 PPP. Poverty measures based on international poverty lines attempt to hold the real value of the poverty line constant across countries, as is done when making comparisons over time. The $3.20 poverty line is derived from typical national poverty lines in countries classified as Lower Middle Income. The $5.50 poverty line is derived from typical national poverty lines in countries classified as Upper Middle Income. Early editions of World Development Indicators used PPPs from the Penn World Tables to convert values in local currency to equivalent purchasing power measured in U.S dollars. Later editions used 1993, 2005, and 2011 consumption PPP estimates produced by the World Bank. The current extreme poverty line is set at $1.90 a day in 2011 PPP terms, which represents the mean of the poverty lines found in 15 of the poorest countries ranked by per capita consumption. The new poverty line maintains the same standard for extreme poverty - the poverty line typical of the poorest countries in the world - but updates it using the latest information on the cost of living in developing countries. As a result of revisions in PPP exchange rates, poverty rates for individual countries cannot be compared with poverty rates reported in earlier editions. The statistics reported here are based on consumption data or, when unavailable, on income surveys. Analysis of some 20 countries for which income and consumption expenditure data were both available from the same surveys found income to yield a higher mean than consumption but also higher inequality. When poverty measures based on consumption and income were compared, the two effects roughly cancelled each other out: there was no significant statistical difference.

Unit of Measure: %

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: The World Bank’s internationally comparable poverty monitoring database now draws on income or detailed consumption data from more than one thousand six hundred household surveys across 164 countries in six regions and 25 other high income countries (indu