Poverty headcount ratio at $5.50 a day (2011 PPP) (% of population) - Country Ranking

Definition: Poverty headcount ratio at $5.50 a day is the percentage of the population living on less than $5.50 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 Dem. Rep. Congo 97.90 2012
1 Somalia 97.90 2017
3 Madagascar 97.50 2012
4 Malawi 97.10 2019
5 Burundi 96.90 2013
6 Uzbekistan 96.40 2003
7 Liberia 93.20 2016
8 Central African Republic 92.80 2008
9 Sierra Leone 92.70 2018
10 Mozambique 92.20 2014
11 Nigeria 92.00 2018
12 Rwanda 91.90 2016
13 Niger 91.80 2018
13 Tanzania 91.80 2018
13 Timor-Leste 91.80 2014
16 Turkmenistan 91.70 1998
17 Ethiopia 90.20 2015
18 Guinea 89.80 2018
19 Uganda 89.00 2019
20 Angola 88.50 2018
21 Zambia 88.10 2015
22 Chad 87.90 2018
23 India 87.50 2011
24 Papua New Guinea 86.90 2009
25 Kenya 86.60 2015
26 Guinea-Bissau 86.00 2018
27 Solomon Islands 84.50 2012
28 Bangladesh 84.20 2016
29 Congo 83.90 2011
30 Nepal 83.00 2010
31 São Tomé and Principe 82.90 2017
32 Zimbabwe 82.80 2019
33 Yemen 81.00 2014
34 Burkina Faso 80.00 2018
35 Benin 79.30 2018
35 Sudan 79.30 2014
37 Haiti 78.60 2012
38 Togo 78.00 2018
39 Mali 77.80 2018
40 Pakistan 77.60 2018
41 Lesotho 73.20 2017
42 The Gambia 72.70 2015
43 Egypt 72.60 2017
44 Eswatini 72.00 2016
45 Cameroon 71.00 2014
46 Lao PDR 70.40 2018
47 Djibouti 70.20 2017
48 Vanuatu 68.10 2019
49 Côte d'Ivoire 67.40 2018
50 Senegal 66.80 2018
51 Comoros 64.60 2014
52 Botswana 59.10 2015
53 Mauritania 58.80 2014
54 Kiribati 58.50 2019
55 Kyrgyz Republic 58.10 2020
56 South Africa 56.90 2014
57 Ghana 55.10 2016
58 Myanmar 54.30 2017
59 Iraq 52.40 2012
60 Belize 51.10 1999
61 Guyana 51.00 1998
61 Namibia 51.00 2015
63 Tajikistan 50.50 2015
64 Indonesia 50.20 2021
65 Fiji 49.40 2019
66 Guatemala 49.10 2014
67 Honduras 49.00 2019
68 Suriname 48.20 1999
69 Philippines 46.90 2018
70 Tuvalu 46.70 2010
71 Georgia 46.60 2020
72 Armenia 44.70 2020
73 Nauru 43.00 2012
74 Sri Lanka 42.00 2016
75 Cabo Verde 41.30 2015
76 Syrian Arab Republic 40.10 2003
77 Bhutan 38.90 2017
78 Colombia 38.30 2020
79 Nicaragua 35.40 2014
80 Samoa 33.90 2013
81 Peru 32.90 2020
82 Venezuela 32.70 2006
83 Gabon 32.20 2017
84 Trinidad and Tobago 31.90 1992
85 Ecuador 30.60 2020
86 Morocco 30.20 2013
87 Jamaica 29.20 2004
88 Algeria 28.60 2011
89 Mexico 28.10 2020
90 Tonga 27.50 2015
91 Mongolia 27.10 2018
92 Vietnam 22.40 2018
93 El Salvador 22.30 2019
94 Bolivia 21.60 2020
95 St. Lucia 19.90 2016
96 Argentina 18.20 2020
97 North Macedonia 17.90 2018
97 Paraguay 17.90 2020
99 Iran 17.80 2019
100 Jordan 17.50 2010
100 Tunisia 17.50 2015
102 Montenegro 16.80 2018
103 Costa Rica 16.10 2020
104 China 15.80 2019
105 Dominican Republic 15.20 2020
106 Moldova 13.30 2019
107 Brazil 13.10 2020
108 Mauritius 12.70 2017
109 Panama 12.10 2019
110 Turkey 10.20 2019
111 Serbia 10.10 2019
112 Albania 10.00 2019
113 Romania 9.20 2019
114 Azerbaijan 7.00 2005
115 Thailand 6.40 2020
116 Bulgaria 6.20 2019
117 Seychelles 5.20 2018
118 Uruguay 4.60 2020
118 Kazakhstan 4.60 2018
120 Chile 4.40 2020
121 Bosnia and Herzegovina 3.80 2011
122 Greece 3.40 2019
123 Russia 2.90 2020
123 Italy 2.90 2018
123 Malaysia 2.90 2015
126 Spain 2.50 2019
126 Ukraine 2.50 2020
128 Israel 2.00 2018
128 Latvia 2.00 2019
130 Hungary 1.80 2019
130 Croatia 1.80 2019
132 Lebanon 1.70 2011
133 United States 1.50 2019
134 Lithuania 1.40 2019
135 Estonia 1.30 2019
135 Slovak Republic 1.30 2019
137 Japan 1.20 2013
138 Poland 1.10 2018
139 United Kingdom 0.90 2017
139 Portugal 0.90 2019
141 Austria 0.80 2019
142 Australia 0.70 2018
142 Malta 0.70 2019
142 Korea 0.70 2016
142 Canada 0.70 2017
146 Sweden 0.60 2019
147 Denmark 0.40 2019
148 Cyprus 0.30 2019
148 Netherlands 0.30 2019
148 Norway 0.30 2019
148 Czech Republic 0.30 2019
148 Luxembourg 0.30 2019
153 Germany 0.20 2018
153 Belgium 0.20 2019
155 United Arab Emirates 0.10 2018
155 Belarus 0.10 2020
155 Switzerland 0.10 2018
155 Finland 0.10 2019
155 Ireland 0.10 2018
155 France 0.10 2018
155 Slovenia 0.10 2019
162 Iceland 0.00 2017

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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, $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