A Global Count of the Extreme Poor in 2012 : Data Issues, Methodology and Initial Results
The 2014 release of a new set of purchasing power parity conversion factors (PPPs) for 2011 has prompted a revision of the international poverty line. In order to preserve the integrity of the goalposts for international targets such as the Sustain...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2015
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/10/25114899/global-count-extreme-poor-2012-data-issues-methodology-initial-results http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22854 |
Summary: | The 2014 release of a new set of
purchasing power parity conversion factors (PPPs) for 2011
has prompted a revision of the international poverty line.
In order to preserve the integrity of the goalposts for
international targets such as the Sustainable Development
Goals and the World Bank’s twin goals, the new poverty line
was chosen so as to preserve the definition and real
purchasing power of the earlier $1.25 line (in 2005 PPPs) in
poor countries. Using the new 2011 PPPs, the new line equals
$1.90 per person per day. The higher value of the line in US
dollars reflects the fact that the new PPPs yield a
relatively lower purchasing power of that currency vis-à-vis
those of most poor countries. Because the line was designed
to preserve real purchasing power in poor countries, the
revisions lead to relatively small changes in global poverty
incidence: from 14.5 percent in the old method to 14.1
percent in the new method for 2011. In 2012, the new
reference year for the global count, we find 12.7 percent of
the world’s population, or 897 million people, are living in
extreme poverty. There are changes in the regional
composition of poverty, but they are also relatively small.
This paper documents the detailed methodological decisions
taken in the process of updating both the poverty line and
the consumption and income distributions at the country
level, including issues of inter-temporal and spatial price
adjustments. It also describes various caveats, limitations,
perils and pitfalls of the approach taken. |
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