Publication: Global Trends in Child Monetary Poverty According to International Poverty Lines
Date
2023-09-19
ISSN
Published
2023-09-19
Author(s)
Salmeron Gomez, Daylan
Engilbertsdottir, Solrun
Cuesta Leiva, Jose Antonio
Newhouse, David
Stewart, David
Abstract
This paper analyzes extreme child
poverty ($2.15/day poverty line) trends, as well as child
poverty based on the higher international poverty lines of
$3.65 and $6.85. The paper provides a trajectory of extreme
child poverty (children living in extremely poor households)
from 2013 to 2019 (based on the most recent surveys included
in the Global Monitoring Database), complemented by
nowcasting for 2020 to 2022. Children continue to be
disproportionately affected by extreme poverty. Children who
are younger than 18 years comprise more than 50 percent of
those living in extreme poverty, although their share of the
population is 31 percent. The paper estimates that in 2019,
15.8 percent of children in the world (319 million) younger
than 18 years lived on less than $2.15 (2017 purchasing
power parity) per day, as opposed to 6.6 percent of adults
ages 18 and older. More recent “nowcasted” estimates suggest
that at least 333 million children were expected to be
living in extremely poor households in 2022, implying that
14 million more children were extremely poor in 2022 than in
2019. Following an increase in extreme child poverty at the
height of the pandemic in 2020, nowcasted estimates show
that the rate of extreme child poverty fell again in 2021
and 2022, but only at the slow rate of progress seen prior
to the COVID-19 crisis. If the COVID-19 pandemic had not
occurred, an estimated 79.7 million fewer children would
have been living in extreme poverty between 2013 and 2022;
however, the estimates suggest that the number of children
living in extreme poverty decreased by 49.2 million, due to
pandemic disruptions.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Salmeron Gomez, Daylan; Engilbertsdottir, Solrun; Cuesta Leiva, Jose Antonio; Newhouse, David; Stewart, David. 2023. Global Trends in Child Monetary Poverty According to International Poverty Lines. Policy Research Working Papers; 10525. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/40364 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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