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ST/ESA/STAT/POVERTY/WWW
1 January 2006
Handbook on Poverty Statistics:
Concepts, Methods and Policy Use
Chapter 4
Country Practices in Compiling Poverty Statistics
A poverty measurement practices survey done by the UN Statistics Division
in 2004 confirmed that majority of the developing countries follow the
so-called cost of basic needs approach in producing income or expenditure-based
statistics. The steps involved in the approach are discussed and analyzed
systematically. Practical difficulties met in implementing some of the
steps are pointed out, such as choosing food thresholds and food baskets,
estimating from aggregate household data per capita food and non-food
consumption expenditures, and per capita expenditure or income distributions.
Alternative ways of solving or circumventing some of these difficulties
are proposed, with particular reference to food poverty statistics. Based
on actual country practices, the major sources of non-comparability of
poverty statistics are identified and possibilities for improvement are
proposed. Other complementary poverty statistics produced by some countries
are discussed briefly, such as unmet basic needs indicators, relative
poverty measures, and subjective poverty measures.
Chapter 4 
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