Ravallion (2007), ‘Absolute Poverty Measurtes for the Developing World

We report new estimates of measures of absolute poverty for the developing world over 1981-2004. A clear trend decline in the percentage of people who are absolutely poor is evident, although with uneven progress across regions. We find more mixed success in reducing the total number of poor. Indeed, the developing world outside China has seen little or no sustained progress in reducing the number of poor, with rising poverty counts in some regions, notably Sub-Saharan Africa. There are encouraging signs of progress in reducing the incidence of poverty in all regions after 2000, although it is too early to say if this is a new trend. Our thanks go to our colleague Prem Sangraula for expert assistance in creating the data sets used here and to many colleagues in the Bank who have helped us in accessing the primary data sources. These are the views of the authors, and should not be attributed to the World Bank or any affiliated organization.