Saturday, March 17, 2012

Nepal doesn’t have the highest proportion of poor people in South Asia

So says the latest poverty estimates released by the World Bank. For the  curious minds, here is a previous post that compares US$1.25 a day of the WB and national poverty line of CBS.

The chart below shows comparable data of South Asian countries in 2008. In South Asia, Bangladesh had the highest proportion (46.62%) of people living below US$1.25 a day, followed by India (37.37% in aggregate) and Nepal (33.9%). The Maldives has the lowest figure.

Now, if you look at the latest available data, then the figures are:

  • Bangladesh: 38% in 2010
  • Bhutan: 10.22% in 2007
  • Rural India: 34.28% in 2010
  • Urban India: 28.93% 2010
  • Maldives: 1.48% in 2004
  • Nepal: 24.82% in 2010
  • Pakistan: 21.04% in 2007
  • Sri Lanka: 7.04% in 2006

The chart below compares the CBS’s and WB’s data. In poverty estimate for the latest year, there isn’t much difference in the two estimates.