Inequality and Poverty:
Analysis and Policy
Sixth lecture: Poverty in data and charts: global, regional, national and local
26 March 2024
Dr hab. Ryszard Szarfenberg, prof. UW
Faculty of Political Sciences and International Studies
Warsaw University
Course web page: [Link]
Lecture topics
1. Data and visualisation tools: Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), Our
World in Data, World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform
2. Measuring how people understand poverty and perceive its change
3. Extreme poverty in global perspective with COVID-19 impact
4. Poverty disaggregation: in-work poverty, child and elderly poverty
5. Poverty and social exclusion: three indicators in one with
disaggregation by age, sex, education and economic activity
6. Poverty and inequality correlation
7. Summary
Inequality and Poverty Key Figures How would you like to visualize the income/wealth
data ?
Our World in Data
tool to explore
data on poverty
World Bank Poverty
and Inequality
Platform
Measuring perceptions of poverty
Who is in poverty in public view: the case of UK
Extreme poverty: global trends
World Bank
Number of people living in extreme poverty and China case (1990-2013)
Animated version: The 2017 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals: a new visual guide to data and development. The World Bank
The figure shows the distribution of the poor
population at the US$2.15-a-day poverty line
in 2019, by region and economy
Population below
2.15$ 1990-2021 by
groups of countries
Global distribution
of population with
previous global
poverty line $1.90
National poverty lines
at different levels with
less and more affluent
countries and global
poverty line at $2.15
COVID-19 shock to global poverty
But what if the poverty threshold is set at $30?
The world as 100 people
The controversy about poverty rate
charts in long periods
Global poverty trends vs people pessimism
Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2018) - "Global Extreme Poverty".
Published online at [Link].
Broader picture
Other interesting empirical findings
In-work poverty or working poor: employed people in Is employment a
households below poverty line guarantee against
poverty? No
Working poor, relative poverty rate (in %, OECD data, last available year, 2017)
30,0
25,6
25,0
Definition: Working poor are those with income below the poverty line
(50% of median disposable income), living in households with a working
20,0 age head and at least one worker
18,5
16,8
15,5 15,9
14,815,3
15,0
13,113,3 13,713,814,2
12,4
11,7
10,511,011,0
10,0 8,4 8,5 8,8 9,0
7,2 7,6
6,1 6,4 6,6 6,6 7,1 7,1
5,6 5,9 5,9 5,9 6,0
4,5 4,8 5,2
5,0 3,5 3,7 3,9 4,0 4,0
0,0
New Zealand
Australia
Korea
Hungary
Italy
Mexico
Germany
Ireland
Belgium
United Kingdom
Netherlands
Israel
Slovenia
Iceland
Austria
Latvia
Estonia
Poland
Portugal
Brazil
Lithuania
Denmark
France
Luxembourg
Canada
Greece
Spain
Costa Rica
Slovak Republic
Norway
Japan
Russian Federation
Chile
Turkey
India
China
Czech Republic
Finland
Sweden
United States
Switzerland
South Africa
Data: [Link]
Child and elderly poverty rates: comparison for OECD countries
The lower the elderly
poverty relative to child
poverty the higher the
ratio is e.g. 10% child
poverty to 2% elderly
poverty equals 500%
ratio. If the ratio is
below 100% it means
that child poverty rate is
less than elderly poverty
rate
Intergenerational Justice in Aging Societies
Poverty rates for elderly by gender
in OECD countries
[Link]
What if we use three
indicators in one index: EU
approach (at risk of poverty
and social exclusion, AROPE)
disaggregated for the EU
People identified by AROPE as percent of population
Overlapping areas indicate people with two or all problems, e.g. in
a low income and low work intensity household (12.3 million), in a
low income and severe material deprivation household (8.5
million). However, the majority are in households with low income
but no deprivation and low work intensity (46.9 million).
EU approach Unemployment and
disaggregated by outside labour market
sex, age, contribute to more
AROPE result
education,
economic activity
status The higher the
education the less
AROPE result
Poverty and inequality correlation
The higher the inequality
measured as gross income
going to top 1% the higher
the poverty rate
A.B. Atkinson, Inequality What Can Be Done?, 2015
What we have learnt? Summary
1. There are several data tools we can use to describe poverty trends in time and with
comparison between countries and continents: Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), Our World in
Data, World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform
2. Understanding and perception of poverty trends van be measured with interesting insights
3. There was a huge progress in reduction of extreme (absolute) poverty in the world from
1990ties, but it depends on the poverty line and the trend was interrupted by COVID-19
4. Poverty is disaggregated in many different ways, e.g. by age, sex, economic activity
5. In-work poverty is a real issue, having a job is not a guarantee to be free from poverty due to
measurement of poverty at the level of the household
6. EU approach to poverty is based on the complex index with three sub-measures of relative
poverty (at risk of poverty), material and social deprivation and work intensity in the
household. The higher education and economic activity, the lower the index of at risk of
poverty or social exclusion
7. Poverty and inequality are positively correlated at least for some measures: the higher the
poverty, the higher inequality