Monitoring Extreme Poverty
Despite the considerable improvements in coverage and data access that have taken place, problems remain. A global poverty measure should cover everyone on the planet. In this respect, there is a difference from the initial World Bank estimates, which were intended to cover only developing countries (Part II Member Countries). There are at least four ways in which people may be missing from the PovcalNet statistics underlying the global poverty count: (i) the country (or territory) in which they live may not be covered by PovcalNet, (ii) their country may be covered but PovcalNet may not include a current household survey providing data on household consumption, (iii) the household survey used in PovcalNet may not cover them (including cases where coverage is not national), and (iv) people may be stateless or in transit between states. Country Coverage The data contained in PovcalNet 2011 cover 148 countries, of which 34 are classified as high income (as of July 1, 2013) and are taken as having zero extreme poverty (this assumption is discussed further below). For five countries where there was a large difference between the PPP adjustment and recorded domestic inflation, the 2011 PPPbased estimates were not used (instead the 2005 PPP was used), but they are included in the estimates using PovcalNet 2005.10 For a further five countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen) country-level poverty estimates based on 2011 PPPs were not available in the 2011 round because of inexplicably large deviations between CPI and PPP inflations, outdated or major ongoing revisions to latest surveys, and ongoing conflicts. The PovcalNet website refers to 170 countries, but subtracting the 5+5 countries just identified, and allowing for the 12 separate entries for rural or urban populations for countries already counted, gives a total of 148 countries in PovcalNet 2011. Adding the five covered by PovcalNet 2005 gives a grand total of 153 that enter the 2011 global poverty estimates. (For Argentina and the Federated States of Micronesia, the results cover only the urban population.) With 153 national estimates, PovcalNet does not cover all countries in the world. But it is not clear how far it falls short. How many countries there are in the world is not a question that is easily answered.
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