Global Distribution of Poverty

Project Mission

The Global Poverty Mapping Project seeks to enhance current understanding of the global distribution of poverty and the geographic and biophysical conditions of where the poor live. Additionally, the project aims to assist policy makers, development agencies, and the poor themselves in designing interventions to reduce poverty.

Project Highlights

Subnational Poverty Data Sets

• Download our collection of subnational, spatially explicit, poverty data sets. These are available for selected proxy measures of poverty, at global and national scales. The global data are of varying resolution, but primarily coarse; the national data sets are of considerable higher-resolution.
• Explore our data catalogs. These catalogs describe the variables available in each data set, and the underlying spatial, survey, and census data sets used to construct the integrated collection. Metadata records also provide details on source data and methods.

Poverty Maps Collection

• View and download our poverty maps. These compelling maps illustrate how these data can be used to generate poverty maps. The collection includes poverty maps at a number of spatial scales (global, regional, national, and urban areas) and for a variety of poverty measures. Specifically, there are global and regional maps of the distribution of infant mortality and child hunger; and subnational, small area estimate maps of poverty and inequality at unprecedented levels of spatial detail.

Methods & Analysis

• Various methods have been used to produce these poverty mapping data sets. We link you to original documents describing those methods.
• We have used these data sets in combination with other geographic and biophysical data to explore the distribution, patterns, and correlates of poverty. Some of our findings are available on our applications page.