Subnational Poverty and Inequality Database (SPID)

This data entry includes direct estimates of subnational poverty from household surveys over time for more than 141 economies at the administrative unit level 1, for the overall populations, and also for the subgroups by gender and by age groups. Administrative unit level 1 refers to the highest subnational unit level (examples include ‘state’, ‘governorate’, ‘province’) from household surveys.In 2013, the World Bank announced the goals of fighting poverty in all its forms by 2030 and promoting shared prosperity. Despite the remarkable progress in reducing poverty in recent years, reaching the targets remains challenging. The decline in poverty has been uneven. The poverty reduction in recent years was dominated by East Asia and Pacific (notably China and Indonesia) and South Asia (notably India) (World Bank, 2017). Despite progress, the number of extreme poor remains high, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. In many countries, vast differences in poverty levels persist at the subnational level. In addition, global problems such as climate change, fragility, economic crises, and food security pose great risks for poverty reduction, and they are often trans-border issues that generate strong positive or negative externalities across neighboring countries.This data is updated based on the September 2025 vintage of the GMD database with the latest international poverty lines.