Poverty in MENA

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Incidence using $1 and $2 poverty lines.  Using an international poverty line of $1 per capita a day, poverty in the MENA region is calculated at 2.4 percent of the total population in 2002 (see Table 1).  This is the lowest incidence of extreme poverty among all the regions of the world and compares favorably with Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and the Latin America regions where there also are a significant number of middle income countries.  The relative position of MENA drops to second lowest if we use a poverty line of $2 per capita per day.  By this measure, around 19.8 percent of the population is calculated to be in poverty, just above Europe and Central Asia.  Comparing the 1990 and 2002 data suggest that poverty has declined slightly at the $2 per capita per day level in the MENA region.  As of 2002, there are estimated to be about 61 million poor in the MENA region at the $2 per capita per day level, of which 5 million are below the $1 per capita per day.

For more information, see Poverty Brief