The Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS), 2022-23 has reported that 20.27 percent of the population in Nepal lives below the new poverty line.
According to the summary report of the NLSS released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Monday, the incidence of poverty is higher in rural areas (24.66 percent) than in urban areas (18.34 percent).
An individual in Nepal is classified as poor if their annual per capita total consumption expenditure is less than NRs. 72,908, according to the 2022-23 official poverty line.
The poverty gap index measures the extent to which the mean income of individuals on average fall below the poverty line as a proportion of the poverty line.
It ranges between 0 and 100. A Poverty Gap index of 0 indicates no one is below the poverty line, and a value of 100 indicates zero income for all individuals.
According to the report, Nepal has a Poverty Gap index of 4.52 percent which implies that a total of Rs 94.71 billion is needed to bring the poor up to the minimum welfare threshold defined by the new poverty line in 2022-23.
The average shortfall of mean income is higher in rural areas at 5.64 percent compared to 4.03 percent in urban areas, the report says.
The headcount index and the poverty gap do not measure the inequalities among poor individuals. The Squared Poverty Gap, a weighted sum of the poverty gaps, measures poverty severity among the poor.
The relative deprivation for the poor individuals is more severe in rural areas (1.91 percent) than in urban areas (1.29 percent).
As per the survey, four provinces have more poverty rate against the national record of the poverty rate. Sudurpaschim Province has the highest rate of poverty with 34.16 per cent while Karnali Province has 26.69 per cent, 24.35 per cent in Lumbini Province and 22.53 per cent in Madhes Province.
Gandaki has the least poverty rate with 11.88 per cent followed by 12.59 per cent in Bagmati and 17.19 per cent in Koshi Province.
NLSS IV is a nationwide household survey conducted year-round from July 22 to June 2023. The Nepal government had published the first NLSS report in 1995-96 and came up with the third one in 2010-11.
This report contains only the most sought-after statistics related to poverty and household welfare. The detailed report will come in due course incorporating suggestions from general users and personnel of different level governments, said Toyam Raya, the Chief Statistician at the National Statistics Office.
Full report:
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