Publication: Zambia Poverty and Equity Assessment 2025: Turning Things Around After a Lost Decade
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2025-02-25
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2025-02-25
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Zambia is simultaneously amongst the poorest and the most unequal countries in the world. In 2022, 64.3 percent of the population - about 12.6 million individuals - was living on less than US$2.15 a day. This level is not only the 6th highest in the world but it is also misaligned with the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita level. In four of the five poorer countries, GDP per capita is between one-quarter and one-half of Zambia’s GDP per capita. The remaining country is South Sudan, which is immersed in a protracted fragility and conflict situation. At the same time, consumption inequality is high, even when compared with the sub-group of highly unequal resource-rich countries. In 2022, the Gini index stood at 51.5 - significantly above the World Bank’s newly adopted high-inequality threshold of 40. This places Zambia as the country with the 4th highest inequality in the region and the 6th highest globally. Resource-rich countries with similar or higher inequality have substantially lower poverty levels.
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“World Bank. 2025. Zambia Poverty and Equity Assessment 2025: Turning Things Around After a Lost Decade. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42859 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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