To classify a territory (city, state and/or country) as poor, several factors must be taken into consideration., since there is no single criterion for this type of analysis. The first step in this study is the definition of poverty, a subjective concept according to the society in question.
Values such as religion, culture and way of life must be seen with attention and caution so that such analysis is not filled with stereotypes and patterns unreachable by certain regions around the world.
Read too: What is underdevelopment?
Lists of the 10 poorest countries in the world
we prepare three rankings according to three criteria:
- GDP;
- income per capita;
- HDI.
The data collected are from 2018 and were taken from official sources, like the world Bank and the portal of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), which assesses all countries that have their data released, in addition to the Human Development Report, launched by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Lowest GDPs in the world (from smallest to largest)
Parents |
GDP value (US$x100000) |
1st – Tuvalu |
46 |
2º – Nauru |
127 |
3º – Kiribati |
189 |
4º – Marshall Islands |
214 |
5º – palau |
284 |
6º – Micronesia |
371 |
7º – Sao Tome and Principe |
411 |
8th – Tonga |
504 |
9º – Dominica |
551 |
10º – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |
811 |
The largest GDP in the world is the USA: US$ (x1000000) 20,580,223.
In this item, it is noteworthy that all these countries are small islands in their respective continents, which can justify such a small GDP.
lower income per capita (from smallest to largest)
Parents |
Income per capita (US$) |
1º – Somalia |
100 |
2º – Burundi |
294 |
3º – Malawi |
397 |
4º – Liberia |
440 |
5º – Central African Republic |
481 |
6º – Mozambique |
499 |
7º – Madagascar |
527 |
8º – Sierra Leone |
536 |
9º – Afghanistan |
552 |
10th – Democratic Republic of Congo |
561 |
the highest income per capita of the world belongs to monaco: $185,835.
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Lowest HDIs (from lowest to highest)
Parents |
HDI |
1º – Niger |
0,377 |
2nd – Central African Republic |
0,381 |
3º – Chad |
0,401 |
4th – South Sudan |
0,413 |
5th – Burundi |
0,423 |
6º – mali |
0,427 |
7º – Erythrandwas going |
0,434 |
8º – Burkina Faso |
0,434 |
9th – Sierra Leone |
0,438 |
10th – Mozambique |
0,446 |
The highest HDI in the world is from Norway: 0,954.
Read too: Brazilian culture: from diversity to inequality
What is poverty?
According to the Aurélio Dictionary of Portuguese Language, poverty is nothing more than the characteristic of those who are poor. This last adjective is defined as “what does not have what is necessary for life, without money or means”. However, some societies have cultures different, which ends up interfering with the understanding of this concept.
Therefore, the definition of poverty presented by the dictionary may not be valid for the whole world, due to the peculiarities of each country, which involve social, religious, political issues, among others.
The definition of poverty also varies over the years with changes brought about by economic policies, globalization, access to information and change in analysis parameters. At the moment, according to world Bank, a person who lives on less than $1.90/day is considered poor, something that affects approximately 760 million individuals across the planet, around 10.5% of the world's population.
As a rough definition, we can say that poverty is characterized by the lack of access to:
- potable water;
- adequate food daily;
- sanitary means, such as basic sanitation and medical consultations;
- electricity;
- other items that guarantee a minimum of well-being and family comfort.
The concept of poverty, as we said, varies from country to country, but there is unanimity when it comes to public policies aimed at those most in need. Governments use their poverty measurement criteria to plan and execute social policies, and one of the parameters taken into account is $1.90/day.
The named criterion of “poverty line” analyzes the population rate that lives below this range, considering the region, geography, climate and social aspects. This line can be defined according to the economic evolution of each country over the years, which brings a difficulty in terms of world comparison. As an example, we can mention two extremes: those who are poor in the United States (the richest country in the world in terms of GDP) can have a comfortable life in Tuvalu, the country with the lowest GDP in the world.
The living conditions in the two countries mentioned are completely different, which shows that classifying and analyzing poverty is not as simple as one imagines.
See too: Social inequality - difference between social classes regarding various factors
Classification criteria of the poorest countries in the world
To measure poverty in a region, the World Bank adopted the criterion of people living on up to $1/day in 1991. These people, according to the parameters of this institution, are below the poverty line.
Over the years, this number of $1 has been increasing progressively, reaching, in 2015, $1.90/day. The essential purpose of this number is to analyze, on a worldwide level, how many people live in extreme poverty to then make national comparisons.
Thus, each country must verify in its populations who live below this financial condition and draw their public policies, such as income transfer, encouraging education and schooling, infrastructure (sanitation basic), etc. This parameter is still followed today, with unanimity among countries to measure the poverty condition of their inhabitants. However, he is not the only one.
There are also economic indicators such as GDP or income analysis per capita of a territory. These indicators alone do not reflect the entire reality of the population, as mask the income distribution, as there is great wealth concentrated in the hands of a small group of people, especially in emerging countries and underdeveloped. Thus, when analyzing these indicators in isolation, a mistake can be made, as countries very rich people, with an immense GDP, do not necessarily have many people with access to this wealth.
The Human Development Index (HDI) can also be used to assess the poverty of a location, since, among the three factors studied to obtain this index, one is family income. Generally, countries with very low HDI are those where most of the population is poor.
By Attila Matthias
Geography teacher
