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When measured, poverty may be absolute or relative.Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. An example of an absolute measurement would be the percentage of the population eating less food than is required to sustain the human body (approximately 2000–2500 calories per day).
Each nation has its own threshold for absolute poverty line; in the United States, for example, the absolute poverty line was US$15.15 per day in 2010 (US$22,000 per year for a family of four), [22] while in India it was US$1.0 per day [23] and in China the absolute poverty line was US$0.55 per day, each on PPP basis in 2010. [24]
The term "absolute poverty" is also sometimes used as a synonym for extreme poverty. Absolute poverty is the absence of enough resources to secure basic life necessities. Poverty headcount ratio at $1.90 a day (2011 PPP) (% of population). Based on World Bank data ranging from 1998 to 2018. [16]
It is a term used in social sciences to describe feelings or measures of economic, political, or social deprivation that are relative rather than absolute. [3] The term is inextricably linked to the similar terms poverty and social exclusion . [ 5 ]
The 1995 world summit on social development in Copenhagen had, as one of its principal declarations that all nations of the world should develop measures of both absolute and relative poverty and should gear national policies to "eradicate absolute poverty by a target date specified by each country in its national context." [6]
National poverty lines reflect local perceptions of the level and composition of consumption or income needed to be non-poor. The perceived boundary between poor and non-poor typically rises with the average income of a country and thus does not provide a uniform measure for comparing poverty rates across countries.
In October 2017, the World Bank updated the international poverty line, a global absolute minimum, to $1.90 a day. [3] This is the equivalent of $1.00 a day in 1996 US prices, hence the widely used expression "living on less than a dollar a day". [4] The vast majority of those in extreme poverty reside in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Absolute poverty is a lack of basic necessities, based on a set income level. Per World Bank guidelines, people living on less than $2.15 a day are considered to be living in extreme poverty. This generally applies to people in low income countries. For lower middle-income countries, the delineation is $3.20 a day.