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.