Saturday, August 6, 2011

Major findings of Nepal Living Standard Survey III

Key findings of Nepal Living Standard Surveys
NLSS I NLSS II NLSS III
Survey year 1995/96 2003/04 2010
Absolute poverty (% of population) 41.8 30.8 25.2 13
Demography (%)
Population aged 0-14 years 42.4 39.6 36.7
Population aged 15-59 years 50.8 52.8 54.2
Population aged 60+ years 6.8 7.6 9.1
Sex ratio (male to every 100 female) 95.5 92.3 85.6
Female headed households 13.6 19.6 26.6
Housing and household facilities (% of household)
House owner 93.8 91.6 89.7
House renter 2.2 5.4 7.8
Access to power 14.1 37.2 69.9
Access to drinking water 70.4 81.2 83
LPG for cooking 1 8.2 17.7
Access to toilet 21.6 38.7 56
Education
Literacy (6 + years) 37.8 50.6 60.9
Attendance in private school/collage 7.5 16.7 26.8
Remittances
Percentage of househoold receiving remittances 23.4 31.9 55.8
Total amount received (Rs billion) 13 46 310
From within Nepal 6 11 120
From outside Nepal 7 35 208
Use of remittance (%)
Daily consumption - - 78.9
Household property - - 4.5
Repay loans - - 7.1
Education - - 3.5
Capital formation - - 2.4
Income
Nominal avg household income (Rs) 43,732 80,111 202,374
Nominal avg per capita income (Rs) 7,690 15,161 41,659
Share of farm income in household income (%) 61 47.8 27.7
Consumption
Nominal per capita consumption (Rs)
All Nepal 6,802 15,848 34,829
Poorest (first decile) 2,152 4,183 11,093
Average (fifth decile) 4,777 9,230 24,238
Richest (tenth decile) 20,263 62,037 102,772
Consumption expenditure (share of total)
Food - 59 61.5
Housing - 9.5 11
Education - 2.8 5.3
Other non-food items - 28.7 22.2
Wage employment
Share of agriculture sector in wage employment 53 37 35
Mean daily wage (Rs)
Agriculture 40 75 170
Non-agriculture 74 133 263
Loans (% of total household)
Borrowing loans 61.3 68.8 65
Having standing loans 58.4 66.7 62.6
Loans from banks 16.2 15.1 20
Loans from money lenders 39.7 26 15.1
Loans from relatives 40.8 54.5 51.1
This table is sourced from Republica (2011-08-06). My initial comments on the findings are here.
Notice that all the changes are remittance- and migration-driven. More remittance money is spent on consumption than in any other heading. Only 2.4 percent of remittance money is spent in capital formation.
Households that owned houses have decreased while those renting houses have increased. Access to power has substantially increased. So, are households with safe drinking water and toilet. (One can guess the supply thought-- prolonged power cuts and taps running dry!). Households with LPG for cooking has also increased (which explains why the NOC is loosing out the most money on LPG).
Working group population has increased. But, those dependent (60+) has also increased. Dependent population below 14 years has decreased.
Nominal average household income and nominal average per capita income have increased by 153 percent and 175 percent respectively between NLSSII and NLSS III. In the same time period, nominal per capita consumption of the poorest households (first income decile) has increase by 165 percent while that of richest households (tenth income decile) has increased by 66 percent. The nominal per capita consumption of median households (fifth decile) increased by 166 percent.
Consumption expenditure on food, housing and education has increased but on other non-food items it decreased.
The average daily wage in agriculture sector has increased by 127 percent between the two surveys, but that of non-agriculture sector increased by 98 percent only.
More households are now borrowing from banks and curtailing loans from money lenders.