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Article: Poverty, Indices of
- Article from:
- International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
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Poverty, Indices of
THE HEADCOUNT RATIO AND THE INCOME-GAP RATIO
THE AXIOMATIC APPROACH
CALCULATING THE POVERTY LEVEL
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A poverty index measures the level of poverty in a society. In measuring the level of poverty, a poverty line or poverty threshold, usually stated in terms of income, is defined to divide the society into two separate groups. An individual is poor if that individual lives below the poverty line.
THE HEADCOUNT RATIO AND THE INCOME-GAP RATIO
The traditional poverty index is the headcount ratio, which is the proportion of people in a society who are living in poverty. If
n
is the total number of people in the society and
m
is the number of the poor, the ...