PROJECT
Measures of Urban Poverty

This project examines data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) to assess the impact of urban poverty on children’s education and nutrition, child survival, and women’s reproductive health. The study uses multivariate models that include measures of disadvantage at both the household and neighborhood levels.

A comparative analysis of data from 50 countries quantified sharp differences in the levels of services within urban areas, with the urban poor having much less access to adequate water supplies, sanitation, and electricity than the urban nonpoor. Poverty-related differences in access to health services and in health outcomes were further explored in Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and Its Implications in the Developing World (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2003). In this volume and in an ongoing program of research, new methods are being devised to estimate levels of relative urban (and rural) poverty from the indicators available in demographic surveys.

Council researchers Mark R. Montgomery and Paul C. Hewett have published results based on a promising new statistical method (known as MIMIC modeling) to estimate urban living standards from Demographic and Health Survey data and have found strong effects of both household and neighborhood poverty on reproductive health and children’s schooling. They have also found evidence that urban poverty may not be as spatially concentrated (i.e., in slums) as has often been assumed, and are exploring the implications of neighborhood composition for health and schooling.

Research is also underway (with Deborah Balk of Columbia University) using detailed poverty mapping data for southern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa) to understand the role of infrastructure, geography, and bio-physical factors (rainfall, soil quality, elevation, disease prevalence) in determining rates of urban and rural poverty and inequality.

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Location

Developing world; South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique

Duration

1999–ongoing

Population Council researchers

Mark R. Montgomery, Paul C. Hewett

Non-Council collaborators

Alex Ezeh (African Population and Health Research Centre)

Deborah Balk (Columbia University)

Donors

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Population Council

US Agency for International Development

Publications/Resources on this project

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See Also

• Urban Poverty and Health

• South Africa

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