Laos
Vientiane | May 2015
LAK 6,400 (USD 0.80, EUR 0.73).
This is based on the per capita per-day basis of the most recent national poverty line.
Laos’ poverty line is constructed on an absolute basis, comprising a food poverty line (based on 2,100 kcal per day) and non-food poverty line (30% of total consumption). The most recent overall national poverty line is LAK 192,000 per person per month (2010), and there are also separate lines for urban and rural areas.
In 2015, the household poverty incidence rate in Laos was 8.11% (76,600 families), reaching the government’s goal of having less than 10% incidence rate by 2015. Data is collected by the Lao Statistics Bureau (LSB) through the Lao Consumption and Expenditure Survey (LECS), which has been conducted every five years since 1992.
Poverty reduction and development initiatives are set out under Laos’ National Growth Poverty Eradication Strategy, driven by the National Committee for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication. One of the initiatives is the Three Builds (Sam Sang) directive which focuses on developing local administrative abilities at the province, district and village levels. The number of poor districts and villages are also monitored; from 2011 to 2015, the number of poor districts fell from 53 to 23 and the number of poor villages fell from 3,175 to 1,736.
Note: Latest available standards and exchange rates were taken as of May 2015, when the photography was undertaken.
Understanding More
Lao PDR: Poverty Reduction Program
ADB: Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2014