Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
of the world, but this has not been true locally - that is, entitlements
have not been met, representing a situation of food insecurity. These
conditions etch out a situation where the vulnerabilities of certain poor
groups become all too apparent. In other words, the vulnerable poor
sometimes face famine even when food is plentiful.
Measuring Poverty
GNP/GDP per capita as measures of goods and production per head of
the population can be taken as aggregate measures of income poverty
within particular territories or nations. However, the most straightfor-
ward measure of income poverty is the headcount. This is the percent-
age of the population that falls below a stipulated poverty line. To
calculate this, the poverty level or line first has to be defined.
We can now look at income poverty for broad continental divisions
of the developing world (see Table 1.4.1). In this the frequently
employed poverty measure of the percentage of the population living
below an income of US$1.00 per day is used as the poverty line. The
headcount figures show that nearly 50 per cent of the population of
sub-Saharan Africa is living below this poverty line and that the
region has shown no real improvement since 1990. On the other hand,
47
Table 1.4.1
Percentage of the total population living on less than $1 per day,
1990, 1999 and 2005 by major region in the developing world
Region
1990
1999
2005
Sub-Saharan Africa
57
58
51
Southern Asia
49
42
39
South-Eastern Asia
39
35
19
Eastern Asia
60
36
16
Latin America and the Caribbean
11
11
8
Western Asia
2
4
6
Comm. of Ind. States of S Asia
3
8
5
North Africa
5
4
3
Transition Countries of SE Europe
0.1
2
1
Developing Regions
42
31
25
Source
: United Nation Development Programme, 2009
