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New evidence on the urbanization of global poverty

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Author Info
Ravallion, Martin
Chen, Shaohua
Sangraula, Prem

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Abstract

The authors provide new evidence on the extent to which absolute poverty has urbanized in the developing world, and the role that population urbanization has played in overall poverty reduction. They find that one-quarter of the world's consumption poor live in urban areas and that the proportion has been rising over time. By fostering economic growth, urbanization helped reduce absolute poverty in the aggregate but did little for urban poverty. Over 1993-2002, the count of the"$1 a day"poor fell by 150 million in rural areas but rose by 50 million in urban areas. The poor have been urbanizing even more rapidly than the population as a whole. Looking forward, the recent pace of urbanization and current forecasts for urban population growth imply that a majority of the poor will still live in rural areas for many decades to come. There are marked regional differences: Latin America has the most urbanized poverty problem, East Asia has the least; there has been a"ruralization"of poverty in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; in marked contrast to other regions, Africa's urbanization process has not been associated with falling overall poverty.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 4199.

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Date of creation: 01 Apr 2007
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4199

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Keywords: Rural Poverty Reduction; Population Policies; Achieving Shared Growth; City Development Strategies;

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Ravallion, Martin & Datt, Gaurav & van de Walle, Dominique, 1991. "Quantifying Absolute Poverty in the Developing World," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(4), pages 345-61, December.
  2. Cohen, Barney, 2004. "Urban Growth in Developing Countries: A Review of Current Trends and a Caution Regarding Existing Forecasts," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 23-51, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2006. "The World Distribution of Income: Falling Poverty and ... Convergence, Period," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 121(2), pages 351-397, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Korinek, Anton & Mistiaen, Johan A. & Ravallion, Martin, 2005. "Survey nonresponse and the distribution of income," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3543, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Lanjouw, Peter & Ravallion, Martin, 1995. "Poverty and Household Size," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(433), pages 1415-34, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Ravallion, Martin & Lokshin, Michael, 2005. "Who cares about relative deprivation ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3782, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  7. Martin Brockerhoff, 1999. "Urban Growth in Developing Countries: A Review of Projections and Predictions," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 25(4), pages 757-778. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 2007. "China's (uneven) progress against poverty," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 1-42, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Atkinson, A B, 1987. "On the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 749-64, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Ravallion, Martin & Huppi, Monika, 1991. "Measuring Changes in Poverty: A Methodological Case Study of Indonesia during an Adjustment Period," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 57-82, January.
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Chen, Shaohua & Ravallion, Martin, 2008. "China is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4621, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  2. Jean-Pierre Lachaud, 2009. "La féminisation de l'urbanisation de la pauvreté à Madagascar," Documents de travail 147, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV. [Downloadable!]
  3. Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2009. "History without Evidence: Latin American Inequality since 1491," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 3, Courant Research Centre PEG. [Downloadable!]
  4. Headey, Derek & Malaiyandi, Sangeetha & Fan, Shenggen, 2009. "Navigating the perfect storm: Reflections on the food, energy, and financial crises," IFPRI discussion papers 889, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  5. Chen, Shaohua & Ravallion, Martin, 2008. "The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4703, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  6. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua & Sangraula, Prem, 2008. "Dollar a day revisited," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4620, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  7. Julie Litchfield & Thomas McGregor, 2008. "Poverty in Kagera, Tanzania: Characteristics, Causes and Constraints," PRUS Working Papers 42, Poverty Research Unit at Sussex, University of Sussex. [Downloadable!]
  8. von Braun, Joachim, 2007. "The world food situation: New driving forces and required actions," Food policy reports 18, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  9. Headey, Derek & Bezemer, Dirk & Hazell, Peter B., 2008. "Agricultural exit problems: Causes and consequences," IFPRI discussion papers 802, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  10. Chen, Shaohua & Ravallion, Martin, 2007. "Absolute poverty measures for the developing world, 1981-2004," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4211, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  11. Zezza, Alberto & Tasciotti, Luca, 2008. "Does Urban Agriculture Enhance Dietary Diversity? Empirical Evidence from a Sample of Developing Countries," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44390, European Association of Agricultural Economists. [Downloadable!]
  12. Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2009. "Five Centuries of Latin American Inequality," NBER Working Papers 15305, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Anderson, Kym, 2009. "Political Economy of Distortions to Agricultural Incentives: Introduction and Summary," Agricultural Distortions Working Paper 50306, World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  14. Diao, Xinshen & Fan, Shenggen & Headey, Derek & Johnson, Michael & Nin Pratt, Alejandro & Yu, Bingxin, 2008. "Accelerating Africa's food production in response to rising food prices: Impacts and requisite actions," IFPRI discussion papers 825, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  15. Chilosi, Alberto, 2008. "Poverty, population, inequality, and development in historical perspective," MPRA Paper 7214, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 21 Sep 2009. [Downloadable!]
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