Who Are the Poor in the Developing World?
This paper presents a new demographic profile of extreme and moderate poverty, defined as those living on less than $1.90 and between $1.90 and $3.10 per day in 2013, based on household survey data from 89 developing countries. The face of poverty...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26832079/poor-developing-world http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25161 |
| Summary: | This paper presents a new demographic
profile of extreme and moderate poverty, defined as those
living on less than $1.90 and between $1.90 and $3.10 per
day in 2013, based on household survey data from 89
developing countries. The face of poverty is primarily rural
and young; 80 percent of the extreme poor and 75 percent of
the moderate poor live in rural areas. Over 45 percent of
the extreme poor are children younger than 15 years old, and
nearly 60 percent of the extreme poor live in households
with three or more children. Gender differences in poverty
rates are muted, and there is scant evidence of gender
inequality in poor children's educational attainment. A
sizable share of the extreme and moderate poor, 40 and 50
percent, respectively, have completed primary school.
Compared with the extreme poor, the moderate poor are
significantly more likely to have completed primary school
and are less likely to work in agriculture. After
conditioning on other individual and household
characteristics, having fewer than three children, having
greater educational attainment, and living in an urban area
are strongly and positively associated with economic
well-being. The results reinforce the central importance of
households in rural areas and those containing large numbers
of children in efforts to reduce extreme poverty, and are
consistent with increased educational attainment and
urbanization hastening poverty reduction. |
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