New global estimates of child poverty and their sensitivity to alternative equivalence scales

- This paper presents new estimates for child, adult and elderly extreme poverty for 2013 using survey data from 89 countries.
- The poverty rate for children is more than double that of adults.
- Poverty rates are higher for children than adults under all reasonable two parameter equivalence scales.

This paper uses micro-data from household surveys from 89 countries to estimate the rate of extreme poverty among children in the developing world. 19.5% of children are estimated to live on less than $1.90 per day, as opposed to 9.2% of adults. Poverty rates for children remain above 17%, and are greater than adult poverty rates, for all reasonable two-parameter equivalence scales.