A Global View of Poverty, Gender, and Household Composition
The share of the world’s population living on less than $1.90 a day has been cut by more than half since 2000. The pace of progress has slowed in recent years, however, and is likely to regress with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Advancements...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/776061614181162133/A-Global-View-of-Poverty-Gender-and-Household-Composition http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35183 |
| Summary: | The share of the world’s population
living on less than $1.90 a day has been cut by more than
half since 2000. The pace of progress has slowed in recent
years, however, and is likely to regress with the onset of
the COVID-19 pandemic. Advancements toward achieving the
goal of reducing poverty can be informed by more in-depth
examination of the prevailing poverty profile across
countries. This paper uses data from 91 countries to profile
the poor through a focus on the demographic composition of
households. It contributes to a growing body of literature
on the profile of the poor based on household demographics,
utilizing harmonized cross-country data. Three key findings
related to household demographics and the profile of the
poor emerge. First, globally, the share of young girls who
reside in poor households is almost 1 percentage point
larger than the corresponding share of boys, principally
driven by results from India. In most other countries, girls
and boys (who generally reside with adults) are equally
likely to reside in poor households. Second, along the life
cycle, the next big difference in poverty rates by sex
globally sits among household members ages 25-34, with South
Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa driving these results. Third,
analysis demonstrates that differences in household
composition between women and men, including women’s greater
likelihood to be living in households with young children,
are behind the observed gap in poverty rates by sex. |
|---|