DHS METHODOLOGICAL 

REPORTS 9

Making the Demographic

and Health Surveys

Wealth Index Comparable

FEBRUARY 2014

This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by 

Shea O. Rutstein and Sarah Staveteig of ICF International.

DHS Methodological Reports No. 9 

Making the Demographic and Health Surveys 

Wealth Index Comparable 

Shea O. Rutstein 

Sarah Staveteig 

ICF International 

Rockville, Maryland, USA 

February 2014 

Corresponding author: Shea O. Rutstein, Demographic and Health Research Division, ICF International, 530 

Gaither Drive, Suite 500, Rockville, MD 20850; Phone: 301-572-0950; Fax: 301-572-0999; Email: 

Shea.Rutstein@icfi.com 
Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful to Tom Pullum for his advice and to Mark Montgomery for 

his review. We would also like to thank Sidney Moore for editing the document and Yuan Cheng for 

formatting it. 

Editor: Sidney Moore 

Document Production: Yuan Cheng 

This study was carried out with support provided by the United States Agency for International 

Development (USAID) through the MEASURE DHS project (#GPO-C-00-08-00008-00). The views 

expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States 

Government. 

Recommended citation: 

Rutstein, Shea, and Sarah Staveteig. 2014. Making the Demographic and Health Surveys Wealth Index 

Comparable. DHS Methodological Reports No. 9. Rockville, Maryland, USA: ICF International.
iii 

Contents 

Tables and Figures ...................................................................................................................................... v 

Preface ........................................................................................................................................................ vii 

Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................. iix 

1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1 

1.1 Need for a Comparative Wealth Index ............................................................................................ 2 

1.2 Alternate Measures of Economic Status and Poverty ...................................................................... 3

2 Methods ................................................................................................................................................ 7 

2.1 The Procedure in Brief ..................................................................................................................... 7 

2.2 Selection of the Baseline Survey ..................................................................................................... 7 

2.3 Selection and Calculation of the Anchoring Points ......................................................................... 7 

2.4 Transformation of Country-specific Wealth Indexes ....................................................................... 9

2.5 Survey Inclusion and Survey-specific Adjustments ...................................................................... 10 

2.6 Illustration of the Process ............................................................................................................... 11 

2.7 Sensitivity Testing ......................................................................................................................... 12 

2.8 Establishing a Monetary Equivalent .............................................................................................. 13 

3 Results ................................................................................................................................................ 15 

3.1 Levels of Wealth ............................................................................................................................ 15 

3.2 Trends in Wealth ............................................................................................................................ 23 

4 Example Applications ....................................................................................................................... 29 

4.1 Infant and Child Mortality ............................................................................................................. 29 

4.2 Fertility ........................................................................................................................................... 31 

4.3 Maternal Health Care ..................................................................................................................... 32 

4.4 Children’s Nutritional Status ......................................................................................................... 34 

5 Conclusions and Limitations ............................................................................................................ 37 

5.1 Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 37 

5.2 Limitations ..................................................................................................................................... 37 

5.3 Further Research ............................................................................................................................ 38 

References .................................................................................................................................................. 39 

Appendix A: Summary of Information from DHS Surveys .................................................................. 43
 
v 

Tables and Figures 

Table 2.1 Calculation of wealth index cutpoints for 2006 Benin DHS using 2002 Vietnam DHS as 

baseline ....................................................................................................................................... 11 

Table 2.2 Results of comparison of 2006 Benin DHS wealth index and 2002 Vietnam DHS wealth 

index ........................................................................................................................................... 12 

Table 3.1 Values of comparative wealth index in relation to baseline, mean and standard deviation, 

DHS surveys, 1990-2012 ............................................................................................................ 15 

Table 3.2 Mean comparative wealth index by region, average of means and average of standard 

deviations (SD), DHS surveys .................................................................................................... 19 

Table 3.3 Trends in mean comparative wealth index score by country ...................................................... 23 

Table 3.4 Trends in mean comparative wealth index score by region, DHS surveys 1998-2012 .............. 24 

Table 4.1 Infant and under-5 mortality: Deaths per 1,000 live births, 52 latest DHS surveys since 

2003 ............................................................................................................................................ 30 

Table 4.2 Fertility: Whether women 15-49 had a birth in the year preceding the survey, 52 latest 

DHS surveys since 2003 ............................................................................................................. 31 

Table 4.3 Maternal health: Proper prenatal care (four or more visits starting in the first trimester of 

pregnancy) and delivery in a health facility, last birth in the five years preceding survey ......... 33 

Table 4.4 Nutritional status indicators (stunting and wasting) for children age 0-59 months, 52 latest 

DHS surveys since 2003 ............................................................................................................. 35 

App.Table A.1 Surveys completed for comparative wealth index, number of anchoring regression 

points used, and missing variables, DHS surveys 1991 - 2012 .................................................. 43 

Figure 2.1 Summary of anchoring cutpoints used for calculation of the experimental Comparative 

Wealth Index ............................................................................................................................... 10 

Figure 3.1a Comparative wealth indexes for DHS surveys, by level of mean CWI score, 1990-2012 ...... 20 

Figure 3.1b List of the names of the surveys .............................................................................................. 21 

Figure 3.2 Mean of comparative wealth index (CWI) versus gross national income per capita at 

purchasing power parity (GNI/p at ppp), DHS surveys .............................................................. 25 

Figure 3.3 Relationship between the survey mean of the comparative wealth index (CWI) and the 

logarithm of gross national income per capita (Ln GNI/p), observed points and fitted line, 

DHS surveys ............................................................................................................................... 26 

vii 

Preface 

The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program has become one of the principal sources of 

international data on fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, nutrition, mortality, and 

HIV/AIDS. The relationship between these indicators and economic status is of utmost importance to 

researchers and policymakers worldwide. 

One of the objectives of The DHS Program is to advance the methodology and procedures used to carry 

out national-level surveys as well as to offer additional tools for analysis. This will improve the accuracy 

and depth of information relied on by policymakers and program managers in developing countries. 

The topics in the DHS Methodological Reports series are selected by The DHS Program staff in 

consultation with the U.S. Agency for International Development. While data quality is a main topic of 

the reports, they also examine issues of sampling, questionnaire comparability, survey procedures, and 

methodological approaches. 

It is hoped that the DHS Methodological Reports series will be useful to researchers, policymakers, and 

survey specialists, particularly those engaged in work in developing countries. 

Sunita Kishor 

Director, The DHS Program 

ix 

Executive Summary 

The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) contain a 

vast amount of information on the health and demographic situation of the populations of less developed 

countries. The development of the DHS Wealth Index more than a decade ago provided the opportunity to 

analyze economic differences between households based on indicators of wealth rather than sociodemographic indicators such as education, occupation, residence, and ethnic group. The DHS wealth 

index is a survey-specific measure of the relative economic status of households based on analysis of 

household assets and service amenities at a particular point in time. There has been a substantial 

limitation to comparative and trend analysis because the DHS wealth index is calculated separately for 

each survey. Each index has a mean value of zero and a standard deviation value of one. Thus, specific 

scores and quintile values represent different levels of economic status within specific surveys and cannot 

be directly compared. 

In this report we describe an experimental methodology, the Comparative Wealth Index (CWI), for 

calculating wealth indexes that are comparable across surveys and time and that allow for direct 

comparison of levels of economic status. The CWI was computed for 172 DHS surveys conducted 

between 1990 and 2012. Of the 172 surveys, 87 were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa, 21 in North 

Africa/West Asia/Eastern Europe, 4 in Central Asia, 28 in South and Southeast Asia, and 32 in Latin 

America and the Caribbean. Calculations of means and standard deviations for each survey, as well as 

trends and regional averages, show that the experimental CWI is effective in producing aggregate results 

that tend to comport with per capita income measures for countries and regions. 

In the four illustrative analyses undertaken for indicators of child mortality, fertility, maternal health care, 

and child nutritional status, the Comparative Wealth Index performed well, highlighting the importance of 

absolute levels of wealth in comparing national survey data—usually more important than relative levels 

of wealth. At the same time, the Comparative Wealth Index does not replace the original DHS Wealth 

Index for analysis of issues of poverty because in most of the analyses discussed in this report it was 

found that both indexes are related to outcome indicators. The importance of a comparative measure of 

wealth—such as the one described here for trend analysis within and across countries—is its utility as a 

pragmatic tool for sorting out the effects of health programs from the effects of changes in economic 

status of the population. 

1 

1 Introduction 

From the earliest phase of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) project researchers and 

policymakers were interested in creating a measure of economic status that would be independent of 

demographic characteristics such as education and residence. Direct estimates of household income and 

expenditures in the DHS surveys are desirable but not practical. Collection of accurate income or 

expenditure data in health-related household surveys is hampered by factors such as seasonality, 

volatility, misreporting, and limited interview time (Deaton, 1997; Montgomery et al., 2000). 

At a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting in 1997 on “Health for All by the Year 2000,” Rutstein 

used a previously created index to illustrate that information on differences in health equity can be 

derived from existing DHS survey data, even when there are no data on income and expenditures. This 

index was based on assets and household amenities and services that were included in the surveys because 

of links to health concerns (e.g., the association between diarrhea and dirt flooring, or water supply and 

type of toilet). The separate items were formed into an index by a weighted sum with an ad hoc weighting 

scheme in which either a 0-1 coefficient or a simple scale was used (e.g., for vehicles, a value of “0” is 

assigned for none and a value of “3” is assigned for cars). On this scale, owning a refrigerator counted the 

same as having electricity. At the same time, Filmer and Pritchett (1999; 2001) at the World Bank were 

working on a similar index (based on data from DHS surveys) for use in evaluating education by 

economic status. As a result of the WHO meeting and a subsequent meeting at the World Bank in 1998, 

the World Bank agreed to fund a project to develop a series of population and health indicators using a 

wealth index based on 42 existing DHS country datasets (national surveys implemented from 1990 to 

1998). The Filmer-Pritchett principal component methodology was used to determine the item weights. 

Later, the World Bank funded a second project that expanded the list of indicators to include the earlier 

surveys as well as new surveys through 2001—a total of 75 DHS surveys. Because of the demonstrated 

utility of the wealth index for researchers and policymakers, the DHS project decided to include the 

wealth index as a standard recode variable in all DHS survey datasets (Rutstein and Johnson, 2004). 

With widespread adoption of the DHS wealth index for analyzing differences in population and health 

indicators between wealth quintiles, it was suggested that more items be added to the DHS household 

questionnaire to increase the precision of the index and to correct for a possible urban bias. The items 

added included more assets, ownership and size of land holdings and farm animals, and lower-end and 

upper-end possessions and amenities, such as tables, chairs, shelves, windows, windows with glass, any 

kind of bank account, and computers and internet connections. Later on, separate urban and rural wealth 

indexes were calculated and then combined into a national wealth index (Rutstein, 2008). This procedure 

allowed for different weighting of items in the two areas of residence and facilitated urban-specific and 

rural-specific analyses. 

Currently, the DHS Wealth Index is calculated using coefficients and some items (assets, services, 

amenities) that are specific to urban and rural areas. The procedure involves first calculating a wealth 

index that uses items thought to be common and to have common weighting in both urban and rural areas. 

Then residence-specific wealth indexes are calculated for the urban and rural areas. These residencespecific indexes include additional items (beyond those that make up the common wealth index) such as 

number of farm animals, size of agricultural land, and items not present in both areas, for example, a flush 

toilet connected to a sewer. The urban and rural wealth indexes are then linearly regressed on the common 

wealth index. For each area of residence, predicted wealth scores are calculated where the constant term 

of the regression adjusts the level of each area’s index relative to the common and the coefficient adjusts 

the dispersion in the distribution. The predicted scores for each area of residence are joined to make the 

combined wealth score at the national level. Quintiles for urban and rural areas and the country as a whole 

are then calculated using the de jure household populations of the two residential areas, to produce urban, 
2 

rural and combined wealth indexes, respectively. Rutstein (2008) provides additional details on current 

DHS procedures for calculating urban, rural, and total wealth indexes. 

1.1 Need for a Comparative Wealth Index 

The DHS wealth index remains a survey-specific measure of economic status, i.e., the results are 

applicable only for a particular country and for a particular survey period in that country—with one 

exception, Peru.1

 While the DHS wealth index is useful for analyzing differentials in economic status 

within countries, for the purpose of exploring issues of economic equity and poverty, it should be 

emphasized that the wealth index is constructed as a relative index within each country at the time of the 

survey. Each wealth index has a mean value of zero and a standard deviation of one. Thus, specific scores 

cannot be directly compared across countries or over time. For example, in an extremely poor country a 

household may be included in the highest wealth quintile but is not necessarily well-off in absolute terms. 

Using external information where economic poverty is determined outside the DHS survey, poverty lines 

based on, for example, current per capita income of less than $2.50 per day (originally $1.00 per day) 

(Ravallion, Chen, and Sangraula, 2013) or other definitions could be carried into the DHS data sets by 

determining cutpoints where the percentage of households (or population) ordered by the DHS wealth 

index is the same as that in the external data. Then households can be assigned to “not poor,” “poor” and 

“extremely poor” categories based on the cutpoints for the wealth index. While this procedure is useful if 

comparable economic poverty lines exist from external sources, it is somewhat problematic and does not 

inform the comparability across the rest of the economic status spectrum nor reveal much about trends if 

the definition of economic poverty has changed over time. 

Clearly, there is a need for a DHS Wealth Index that is comparable across countries and time. Ideally, 

such a Comparative Wealth Index (CWI) would help analysts ascertain the following: 1) whether the 

economic situation has improved over time, 2) whether improvements in health and other indicators are 

due to general improvements in economic status or to the effects of government programs focused on the 

poorer sectors of the population, and 3) whether international funding of health and development 

programs is reaching the poorer sectors of the population. 

The remainder of this section describes alternative measures of economic status at aggregate and 

individual levels, as background to development of the CWI. Section 2 describes the methodology 

developed by DHS for computing the CWI. Section 3 presents the results of calculation of CWIs for 172 

DHS surveys and compares results with measures of per capita income. Section 4 presents illustrative 

applications of the CWI procedure to the topics of young child mortality, fertility, maternal health care, 

and children’s nutritional status. Section 5 discusses conclusions about the CWI methodology, its 

limitations, and prospects for future applications. 

 

1

 The DHS wealth indexes constructed for each of the five survey cycles of the Peru Continuous DHS survey 

(carried out between 2004 and 2008) were designed to be comparable with the wealth index constructed for the most 

recent standard DHS survey in that country—the 2000 Peru DHS. The wealth indexes for the survey cycles 2004 

through 2008 were made comparable by using the same items as in the 2000 Peru DHS, using the same estimating 

equation (mean, standard deviation, and PCA coefficients) as in the 2000 Peru DHS, and using the same quintile 

cutpoints as in the 2000 Peru DHS. Thus, in 2008, the “quintiles” no longer represent 20% of the de jure household 

population, as they did in 2000; rather they indicate the same level of economic status. 
3 

1.2 Alternate Measures of Economic Status and Poverty 

Gross National Income per capita based on purchasing power parity (GNI/p, PPP) 

A key nationally-comparable metric of monetary household income is Gross National Income per capita 

based on purchasing power parity (GNI/p, PPP). Gross National Income is “the sum of value added by all 

resident producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output plus net 

receipts of primary income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad.” (World 

Bank, 2013) These estimates are divided by population to produce a per capita estimate and converted to 

international dollars using purchasing-power parity maps. GNI/p, PPP is an aggregate population-level 

measure that is related to (but distinct from) household income. Its main advantage is that it is comparable 

over place and time. As an indicator of poverty, it suffers from drawbacks. First, the average says nothing 

about relative distribution of resources among the population. Countries with large revenues from natural 

resources such as oil will appear better off than other countries, even when only a small minority of the 

population earns large incomes. Second, the accuracy of income data is difficult to ascertain, particularly 

in countries with large informal sectors. Despite these limitations, GNI/p, PPP is one of the most useful 

aggregate metrics for comparing average income across countries and over time. 

International Wealth Index 

The International Wealth Index (IWI) is a comparable asset index based on data from 165 household 

surveys, primarily the Demographic and Health Surveys (Smits and Steendijk, 2012). The authors pooled 

data from 1996 to 2011 and computed an index using principal component analysis (PCA) for a common 

set of assets in the data. The factors were distilled into a more generalized set of weights that score 

households between 0 and 100. The IWI has the advantage of easy reproducibility: a comparable score 

can be instantly produced for any individual household with the requisite information; there are no 

population parameters to anchor. By the same token, its universality is a drawback. Finding a small set of 

assets common to such a large number of surveys requires discarding a lot of the asset information 

gathered about any given household. There is an inherent loss of information about the full spectrum of 

assets that were chosen as the most salient measures of wealth in any given survey. Smits and Steendijk, 

however, show high correlation between the IWI and relative wealth in a number of DHS surveys and 

argue that the loss of information does not make the index “clump” on any particular values (Smits and 

Steendijk, 2012). 

While universality and reproducibility of the set parameters are advantageous, one key disadvantage of 

this pooled data method is that the computations were done at a single point in time; this reduces 

comparability as additional surveys are added. In other words, if the data were re-pooled each time a new 

survey was added then a different set of weights would emerge from PCA. With one or two additions the 

differences may be minor, but with dozens of additional surveys the original weighting becomes 

increasingly arbitrary. 

Similar comparable wealth indexes were produced by Gakidou et al. (2007) using 42 DHS surveys to 

look at improving child survival and by Gakidou and Vayena (2007) using 55 DHS surveys to examine 

use of modern contraceptive methods by the poor. In both these papers, comparability was determined by 

the weighted means of the pooled wealth index threshold points, with the weights being the product of the 

survey sampling weight and the population size of each country. The “quintiles” produced are similarly 

based on the weighted pooled datasets. As with the IWI, the drawback of this approach is that the 

“baseline” changes as new surveys are undertaken and pooled, reducing comparability. 
4 

Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) 

In the early 1980s the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) developed a framework 

(index) of Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN), Indice de Necesidades Básicas Insatisfechas, designed to 

measure nonmonetary dimensions of poverty (Feres and Mancero, 2001a). The UBN framework was 

inspired by Amartya Sen’s seminal work on the measurement of poverty and living standards (Sen, 1976; 

1984), but it was developed as an index for the pragmatic reason that it uses census data to measure 

poverty, independent of income (Feres and Mancero, 2001a). The development of the UBN index was 

based on multidimensional poverty mapping first done in Chile (Kast Rist and Silva, 1975). However, 

according to Feres and Mancero it was the joint work of ECLAC and the Census in Argentina (Instituto 

Nacional de Estadística y Censos [INDEC]) that established a precedent for the use of the UBN index in 

poverty assessments and poverty mapping (INDEC, 1984). The aim was to develop an index of human 

deprivation but the UBN index also identified non-income factors strongly associated with poverty. For 

example, it was found that poverty is more closely associated with overcrowding than with age of 

household head or housing tenure, so overcrowding was chosen as a key indicator of unsatisfied housing 

need (INDEC, 1984). The five UBN indicators established in Argentina were lack of suitable housing, 

deficient sanitary conditions, household overcrowding, lack of schooling, and high economic dependency 

in the household. Since then, the UBN framework has been adopted and adapted in other Latin American 

countries, using similar available indicators judged appropriate to the local situation. 

According to Feres and Mancero (2001b), six key deprivations form the common denominator of the 

cross-national measurement of UBNs in Latin America: 1) overcrowding, 2) inadequate housing, 3) 

inadequate source of water, 4) lack of or unsuitability of toilet facilities, 5) children not attending school, 

and 6) economic capacity, which is an indirect measure of poverty. Countries generally use a subset of 

these indicators and measure them in slightly different ways.2

 In practice, the typical use of UBNs in 

poverty measurement is to set a threshold cutpoint for each (e.g., overcrowding is defined as three or 

more persons per room) and count the number of unsatisfied basic needs for each household. Some 

countries transform these measures into a poverty index using a scoring system for each indicator, 

mapping these onto normalized scores, and then weighting them to produce an index value for poverty 

(Hicks, 1998). 

The UBN method has the advantage of being easy to measure with census data and thus used to 

disaggregate poverty in very small areas. Over time it has been tested against income measures in many 

countries. The lack of a universal definition for the UBN index is symptomatic of its key disadvantage: 

the selection of indicators and cutpoints is arbitrary, as is how they translate into terms like “poverty” or 

“extreme poverty.” Additionally, indicators such as “source of drinking water” and “type of toilet” are 

sensitive to urban-rural residence, and measures of school attendance are not applicable to households 

lacking school-age children. 

Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human 

Development Initiative for the UNDP Human Development Report (UNDP, 2010). Like the UBN index, 

it was inspired by Amartya Sen’s work on poverty, human capabilities, and standards of living (Sen, 

1999; Sen and Hawthorn, 1988). The MPI goes further than the UBN by considering a larger set of 

human deprivations that include educational attainment and nutrition. 

 

2

 For details, see Feres and Mancero (2001a). 
5 

The MPI uses the Alkire-Foster method (Alkire and Foster, 2011) to compute the prevalence and intensity 

of poverty. The three equally-weighted components of the MPI are health, education, and living standards 

(Alkire et al., 2013). Each component itself is comprised of equally-weighted indicators: for health, the 

indicators are child mortality and nutrition; for education, they are years of schooling and children 

enrolled in school; and for living standards, they are fuel, water source, type of toilet, electricity, floor, 

and assets. 

The MPI is an aggregate-level population indicator derived by multiplying the prevalence of poverty and 

the average severity of poverty. As such, it is useful in a broad cross-national or historical perspective but 

it is not intended to directly compare individual households within countries or to assess inequalities 

within countries. For example, according to the education component, households with school-age 

children are the only ones “at risk” of being deprived of half the education score.3

 For the health 

component, the measure of child mortality extends over the entire history of a woman’s reproductive 

lifespan, a period so long it reduces comparability among women of different ages or those living in 

countries with recent famine or conflict. Additionally, households are counted as malnourished if any 

member meets the specified anthropometric criteria for malnutrition; this requirement makes the measure 

sensitive to 1) whether there was subsampling of anthropometric data within a country and across 

countries and 2) whether the survey collected these data for women, men, and/or children. The MPI is a 

useful aggregate measure of population well-being, but it is not intended for use in household-level 

analysis. 

World Health Survey Measures of Economic Status 

In work for the World Health Survey, Ferguson et al. (2003) developed a methodology for estimating 

permanent income using asset indicator variables that is similar to the relative DHS Wealth Index 

procedure that will be described here. It uses anchoring points to estimate permanent income from assets. 

Their approach differs principally by using a dichotomous variant of the hierarchical ordered probit 

(DIHOPIT) model instead of principal components analysis (PCA) used in the DHS Wealth Index. 

Whereas PCA gives scores that have a mean of zero and a standard deviation value of one, Ferguson et al. 

assert that “the DIHOPIT model used to estimate permanent income has the potential to be modified so 

that estimates of permanent income can be directly compared across countries” and they present three 

potential methods. One method is to fix the level of two or more indicator variables—as discussed in 

Tandon et al. (2003) for adjusting self-reported health scales—to one that is common across countries and 

surveys, through the use of anchoring vignettes. This approach suggested the one used here—albeit with 

modification to the mapping, and including nonuse of random effects—that allows determination of 

comparable wealth indexes from those already produced for the DHS surveys using the PCA method.

Ngo (2012) employed an approach to rescaling based on the DIHOPIT method, with fixed cutpoints for 

some of the indicator variables, and applied it to data from the Nicaragua Living Standards Measurement 

Surveys. She found that the rescaled indexes performed fairly well when compared with per capita 

consumption expenditures. However, both Ferguson et al. and Ngo agree that there is little difference in 

the results obtained using the PCA and DIHOPIT methods. 

 

3

 According to Alkire et al. (2013), “People living in households with no school-aged children are considered nondeprived in school attendance.” 

7 

2 Methods 

2.1 The Procedure in Brief 

While it is possible to calculate comparable wealth indexes by using the same set of variables and 

categories in every survey—as well as a standard set of z-scores and principal components analysis 

coefficients and standard quintile break points—differences between surveys in the questions asked and 

the ways in which questions are categorized make this procedure difficult to implement without 

discarding much of the information used in each country to construct the wealth index. 

Instead, the procedure we use to calculate a Comparative Wealth Index (CWI) makes use of several 

techniques: 1) comparison with a baseline, an idea similar to that used for price indexes; 2) use of 

unsatisfied basic needs and other items that are common to most DHS surveys since 1990 as “anchoring” 

points; 3) use of proportions of households at given levels of the “anchors” to determine cutpoints; and 4) 

adjusting the survey-specific DHS Wealth Indexes through regression on anchor cutpoints of the baseline 

wealth index. 

The anchoring points approach was originally developed for the World Health Organization’s World 

Health Survey (2002-2004), which was designed to produce comparable cross-national estimates of adult 

self-reported health (Murray et al., 2000; Murray et al., 2003; Salomon et al., 2001; Tandon et al., 2003). 

Ferguson et al. (2003) used the anchoring approach to estimate permanent income from assets, using data 

from household surveys of Pakistan and Peru. The anchoring approach has subsequently been applied to 

cross-survey metrics looking at topics as diverse as political freedom (King et al., 2004) and job 

satisfaction (Kristensen and Johansson, 2008). 

To develop a “comparable” wealth index using the anchoring approach, several decisions needed to be 

made, specifically: 1) which survey’s wealth index should serve as the baseline; 2) how many and what 

types of anchoring points should be used; 3) how the wealth score values for the anchoring cutpoints 

should be calculated; and 4) what should be done about surveys that have some items missing. These 

decisions are discussed below. 

2.2 Selection of the Baseline Survey 

Because the goal of the CWI was to make the existing survey-specific wealth indexes comparable with 

each other rather than to create a new absolute measure of economic status, the selection of the baseline 

survey was somewhat arbitrary (as is the base year in a price index). At the time of the selection, DHS 

surveys with wealth indexes were available from 1990 through 2011, so a survey around the year 2000 

seemed appropriate. The most widely available and used indicator of country economic status is the 

World Bank’s Gross National Income per capita (GNI/P) at purchasing power parity (PPP) (World Bank, 

2013); so, it was decided to use this indicator (GNI/P at PPP) with data from the year 2000. Among 

countries with DHS surveys, Vietnam turned out to have the median value. The most recent DHS survey 

in Vietnam was in 2002, so this survey’s wealth index was chosen as the baseline—it was in the middle 

of the time period of DHS surveys and in the middle income per capita of the countries with DHS 

surveys. 

2.3 Selection and Calculation of the Anchoring Points 

To ensure comparability it was necessary to spread the anchoring points across the economic distribution, 

i.e., including some points that are relevant at poorer levels and others that are relevant at wealthier levels. 

The Unsatisfied Basic Needs index (UBN), Indice de Necesidades Básicas Insatisfechas, developed by 
8 

the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), is used as the basis for the 

anchoring points at the lowest level of the economic distribution. As discussed earlier, implementation of 

the framework varies by country; a version comparable to that of Peru has been calculated for the DHS 

surveys and seems to compare well with other indicators of poverty.4

 In Peru, the framework is used to 

divide the population into three categories: not poor (no points), poor (1 point), and extremely poor (2+ 

points). For our purposes, to ensure comparability, the point values themselves are used. 

In Peru, the UBN framework (Llanos and INEI, 2000) assigns points for the following: 

• A dwelling with inadequate walls (natural or rustic materials) or dirt flooring 

• Crowding (more than three persons per room, excluding bathrooms, garages, kitchens, and 

hallways) 

• Inadequate toilets (no facility, a pit latrine without a slab, a bucket or hanging toilet) 

• Households with children 6 to 12 years who do not attend school 

• High Economic Dependency: Households whose head has less than a primary complete education 

and with more than three persons per worker. 

Information on these five items is available in almost all DHS surveys; however, in this report we made a 

few adjustments to the definitions of some UBN items and deleted one. “Crowding” was calculated as 

more than three persons per sleeping room.5

 The measure “inadequate toilets” was replaced with 

“inadequate sanitation,” which was expanded to include either inadequate toilet facilities or an inadequate 

source of drinking water. In urban areas, a household was described as having an adequate source of 

drinking water if the water was piped into the dwelling or yard/plot or if the household used bottled water 

for drinking. In rural areas, any protected source of water was considered an adequate source of drinking 

water. Improved toilets and latrines were considered adequate toilet facilities unless shared with other 

households. The fourth item, “households with children 6 to 12 years who do not attend school,” was 

dropped from the UBN because not all households have children that age. Lastly, households were 

considered to have “high economic dependency” if they had more than three household members per 

worker6

 and no working-age adult had completed primary education.7 With these changes to the UBN 

framework, wealth scores were calculated for the percentage of households that had all four unsatisfied 

 

4

 A recent alternative considered was the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). While it is designed as an 

aggregate measure of the prevalence and depth of poverty, items on the index can themselves be used as anchoring 

points for poverty. However, as discussed in the previous section, some of the measures used in the MPI make it 

difficult to compare households directly because they are sensitive to the presence of school-aged children and the 

age of the mother. Other items used to compute the MPI are similar to those used for measuring the UBN. 

5

 DHS generally does not count the number and type of rooms, but rather the number of rooms used for sleeping. In 

the Indonesian surveys, floor space in square meters is available instead of number of sleeping rooms, and an 

alternative measure of crowding based on the square footage per household member was used instead. 

6

 DHS gathers data on employment status through individual rather than household interviews. Since male 

interviews are often done in only a subset of households, we tabulate the number of workers through women’s 

interviews by summing the number of interviewed women and their husbands currently working. All households are 

assumed to have a minimum of one worker. 

7

 For household members age 15 to 24, education is only considered if they are not attending school. If the only 

working-age adults are between 15-24 and attending school, then the education of the household member identified 

as head of household is used. 
9 

basic needs (4 points), three or more unsatisfied basic needs (3 points), two or more unsatisfied basic 

needs (2 points), and one or more unsatisfied basic need (1 point). These scores are then used as 

anchoring points for the relative wealth index. 

Four items were chosen as anchoring points for households at the middle and upper end of the economic 

distribution: possession of a television, a refrigerator, a car/truck, and a fixed (landline) telephone. For 

these items, logistic regression analysis was used to determine the wealth index score at which half of the 

households had each possession. For each item in each survey, a logistic regression was run with the 

dichotomy for that item as the dependent variable and the wealth score as the independent variable.8

 

݌ ൤ ln

ܹܵ × ܾ + ܽ = ൨݌1−

Where p is the percentage with the asset and WS is the wealth score. 

The predicted value of the wealth score where half of the households possess the item is therefore a value 

of zero for the dependent variable, the logit of .5 being 0.9

 The value of the predicted wealth score for this 

point is therefore –a/b. 

Note that this procedure assumes a monotonically increasing trend in possession of the asset item with 

wealth. Each of the chosen assets does have this relationship in all DHS surveys. (An example of an asset 

that does not have a monotonic relationship with wealth, and thus would not work well, is possession of a 

motorcycle; having a motorcycle increases with wealth at first, but then decreases as wealthier households 

increasingly have cars.) Another advantage of these items is that they have not generally been subject to 

dramatic technological shifts over the time period in question. For example, mobile phones, computers, 

and even internet connectivity are used to compute the relative wealth index in surveys where they are 

asked about, but these items would not be appropriate anchoring points for relative wealth comparisons 

over time. Note that it is not necessary that more than 50% of the highest quintile have the possession 

because the calculation is based on the score and not on the quintile. 

2.4 Transformation of Country-specific Wealth Indexes 

The procedure given above was performed for the baseline survey (2002 Vietnam DHS survey) and for 

each specified survey, and for all eight wealth score cutpoints in the baseline and the specified survey, as 

summarized in Figure 2.1. 

 

8

 Ferguson et al. (2003) used an analogous procedure, a dichotomous hierarchical probit analysis (DIHOPIT) to 

estimate the wealth index and the median values of items. Ferguson et al. state that the DIHOPIT approach is at least 

as good as PCA in estimating permanent income but that their analysis “has not explicitly addressed the problem of 

cross-population comparability.” 

9 ln ቀ .ହ

ଵି.ହቁ 	 = 	 lnሺ1ሻ 	= 0
10 

Figure 2.1 Summary of anchoring cutpoints used for calculation of the experimental Comparative 

Wealth Index 

Then, a linear regression was run with the baseline anchor cutpoint values as the dependent variable and 

the specified survey’s anchor cutpoint values as the independent variable: 

cpbi = α + β × cpci

where cpb is the value of the cutpoint on the baseline wealth index of item i and cpc is the value on the 

specified survey’s wealth index. 

The constant α represents the amount of adjustment of the level of the survey-specific wealth index 

relative to the baseline wealth index and β represents the dispersion of the survey-specific index relative 

to the baseline index. 

To produce the CWI score for each survey, each household’s wealth index score is multiplied by the 

coefficient β and the constant term α is added to the product. To produce comparative wealth quintiles, 

the cutpoints for the quintiles of the baseline wealth index are used on the CWI. Note that these 

comparative quintile cutpoint values are, therefore, the same for all surveys. 

2.5 Survey Inclusion and Survey-specific Adjustments 

The CWI was calculated for 172 DHS10 surveys conducted between 1990 and 2012 in 69 countries. It was 

not calculated for Jordan 1990 because most of the questions used in the procedure were not asked. DHS 

wealth indexes are not available for 11 surveys in the early 1990s and these were dropped from 

consideration; the surveys are the Dominican Republic 1991, Egypt 1992, Indonesia 1991 and 1994, 

Madagascar 1992, Niger 1992, Philippines 1993, Senegal 1992-93, Tanzania 1991-92, Yemen 1991-92, 

and Zambia 1992. 

Before 2000, many DHS surveys did not ask questions on the sharing of toilet facilities (24 surveys). In 

Phase 4 of the DHS project, around the year 2000, the question on the number of sleeping rooms was 

 

10 Nonstandard DHS surveys such as the Malaria Indicator Surveys (MIS), the AIDS Indicator Surveys (AIS), 

surveys with restricted data, and region-specific surveys were excluded from the analysis. Nigeria 1999 was also 

excluded because of the poor quality of the data. Additional survey exclusions are described in the text. 

Anchoring Cutpoints 

1. Four unsatisfied basic needs (UBNs) 

2. Three or more UBNs 

3. Two or more UBNs 

4. One or more UBNs 

5. Television 

6. Refrigerator 

7. Car/truck 

8. Fixed landline telephone 

Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) 

• Inadequate dwelling construction 

• Overcrowded housing 

• Inadequate sanitation 

• High economic dependency 
11 

dropped from the standard questionnaire, although many surveys in this phase still asked the question11

(18 surveys lack information on the number of sleeping rooms). The question on possession of a car or 

truck was left out of 15 surveys and the question on possession of a fixed telephone was left out of 29 

surveys, mostly during the 1990s (DHS Phase 2 and Phase 3). Seven surveys did not have information on 

possession of a refrigerator and three lacked information on television sets (see Appendix Table A.1 for 

details by country). Instead of the full complement of eight regression data points, 48 surveys had seven 

data points, 9 had six data points, and 6 had five data points. Where the number of sleeping rooms was 

lacking, the surveys were regressed against a special baseline wealth index from Vietnam 2002 that 

excluded that item. Other surveys made use of the regression points that existed. 

2.6 Illustration of the Process 

The process of calculating cutpoints for the comparative wealth index is illustrated in Table 2.1 using the 

2006 Benin DHS survey as the specified survey with the 2002 Vietnam DHS as the baseline survey. 

Columns 1 and 4 show the percentage of households in each survey, respectively, with four household 

assets—a car or truck, a refrigerator, a fixed telephone, and a television—and the UBN point scores. 

Columns 2 and 5 show the cumulative percentage of households by UBN score; and columns 3 and 6 

show the wealth index cutpoint values for the median of the asset items and for the cumulative 

percentages of UBN scores. Linearly regressing column 6 on column 3 gives the coefficients α and β of -

0.6688 and 0.8117, respectively, which represent the level and the dispersion of the Comparative Wealth 

Index (CWI) calculated for Benin 2006. For each survey, the CWI score for each household is calculated 

by multiplying the relative wealth index score of each household by β and adding α to that product. 

Table 2.1 Calculation of wealth index cutpoints for 2006 Benin DHS using 2002 Vietnam DHS as 

baseline 

 Baseline: Vietnam 2002 Benin 2006 

Items 

% of 

households 

with item 

Cumulative 

% of 

households 

by UBN 

score 

Cutpoints for 

median or 

cumulative % 

% of 

households 

with item 

Cumulative 

% of 

households 

by UBN 

score 

Cutpoints for 

median or 

cumulative %

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) 

Car/truck 1.1 3.5060 4.4 3.5550 

Refrigerator 14.3 1.2385 5.6 2.3600 

Fixed telephone 17.9 0.9946 2.7 3.0487 

TV 70.1 -0.7245 22.6 0.6720 

UBN score 

0 16.6 100.0 4.6 100.0 

1 37.6 83.3 0.9969 25.1 95.4 2.2804 

2 29.3 45.7 -0.2754 42.7 70.3 0.2060 

3 12.7 16.4 -1.0009 20.8 27.6 -0.6325 

4 3.7 3.7 -1.4374 6.8 6.8 -0.8348 

Regression of column 6 on column 3:

α -0.6688 

β 0.8117 

 

11 The Indonesian surveys used a question on floor area, so the minimum floor area per person was used as a 

measure of household crowding instead of the number of sleeping rooms per person. 
12 

The final part of the process is illustrated in Table 2.2, which shows the results of comparing the two 

wealth indexes. For Benin 2006, on the baseline wealth index, the mean for the household members’ 

wealth score is -0.6336 and the standard deviation is 0.8329. The comparative baseline quintile cutpoints 

are -0.9080, -0.3858, -0.1189, and +0.7416. (The original Benin 2006 wealth index has a mean of 0.0288, 

a standard deviation of 1.0431, and quintile cutpoints of -0.7095, -0.5129, -0.1932, and +0.6566.) From 

this calculation, it can be seen that Benin in 2006 was generally poorer than Vietnam in 2002 as the mean 

wealth score for Benin is lower than the zero mean for Vietnam. 

Table 2.2 Results of comparison of 2006 Benin DHS wealth index and 2002 Vietnam DHS wealth 

index 

Household 

population wealth 

index scores 

Baseline: Vietnam 2002 Benin 2006 

Countryspecific Comparative Countryspecific Comparative 

Mean -0.0481 -0.0481 0.0288 -0.6336 

Standard deviation 0.9833 0.9833 1.0431 0.8329 

Minimum -1.9339 -1.9339 -1.0300 -1.5062 

Maximum 2.7995 2.7995 7.5700 5.4727 

Wealth quintiles 

Countryspecific 

cutpoint with 

next highest 

quintile 

Comparative 

cutpoint with 

next highest 

quintile 

Percent of 

household 

population 

Countryspecific 

cutpoint with 

next highest 

quintile 

Comparative 

cutpoint with 

next highest 

quintile 

Percent of 

household 

population 

1 -0.9080 -0.9080 20.0 -0.7095 -0.9080 53.7 

2 -0.3858 -0.3858 20.0 -0.5129 -0.3858 19.7 

3 -0.1189 -0.1189 20.0 -0.1932 -0.1189 8.1 

4 0.7416 0.7416 20.0 0.6566 0.7416 10.8 

5 na na 20.0 na na 7.7 

2.7 Sensitivity Testing 

Testing was conducted to establish how sensitive the new wealth index was to alternate specifications. 

For these tests, 10 surveys with eight anchoring points were sampled systematically from a list of all such 

surveys.12 Because values of the CWI are derived from the estimated regression coefficients between the 

anchoring points for each survey and those of the baseline, which we will call α and β, respectively, these 

coefficients are compared with those of the sensitivity tests. The sensitivity test comparisons are 

evaluated using the average difference in the regression coefficients for the 10 surveys, the correlation 

between the regression coefficients, and the significance of the correlations. 

The first test was to see how sensitive the index was to removal of the cutpoint for fixed telephone. 

Because possession of a fixed telephone is relatively rare in less developed countries, and the question 

about it was absent in a number of surveys—for example, a fixed phone is not necessarily needed, 

 

12 The 10 surveys systematically selected for sensitivity testing were Armenia 2005, Cameroon 1998, Dominican 

Republic 1999, Ghana 2008, Indonesia 2007, Madagascar 1997, Nicaragua 2001, Peru 1996, Sierra Leone 2008, and 

Uzbekistan 1996. 
13 

desired, nor available through existing infrastructure in some areas,13 including Africa—we experimented 

with removing the anchoring point entirely, decreasing the number of cutpoints from eight to seven. In 10 

test countries, the average change in alpha was .036, which was not statistically significant. The cutpoint 

for fixed telephone was kept in the countries where the question was asked. 

A second test was conducted to look at the difference between using toilets alone for the definition of 

adequate sanitation, versus a more comprehensive definition of sanitation that also includes adequate 

drinking water; the latter requires different urban and rural definitions. It was found that the original 

definition from Peru (toilets only) did not result in a statistically significant difference in α and β. It was 

decided that the more comprehensive definition was preferred for substantive reasons and it was 

incorporated into the final definition. 

A third test was conducted to see how sensitive country rankings are to the choice of baseline. Each of the 

10 countries (plus Vietnam) was used as a baseline for the other countries, and the resulting set of scores 

and rankings was compared with the set for Vietnam. It was found that the ranking of the 11 countries 

relative to each other was 98% to 100% correlated when any other baseline was used, suggesting that the 

method employed here is relatively—but not entirely—robust to alternate specifications of the baseline. 

Additional consideration was given to counting UBNs as separate anchoring points (one for each item) 

rather than a sum of the items. The sensitivity test is evaluated by judging whether the non-accumulated 

UBN anchoring points have the same monotonic relationship as the anchoring points of the 10 surveys. It 

was found that using the four UBN criteria as individual anchoring points, instead of their accumulation, 

did not result in the same monotonic order for the 10 surveys. Therefore, counting UBNs as separate 

anchoring points is not equivalent to, or better than, using the accumulated UBN scores. 

2.8 Establishing a Monetary Equivalent 

The Comparative Wealth Index does not have a fixed absolute value; it is an index that is relative to the 

baseline survey so that an index score can be compared across DHS surveys. However, the cutpoints for 

the UBN estimate of poverty and extreme poverty for the baseline survey could be applied to the CWIs 

for each of the surveys, giving comparable lines for poverty and extreme poverty across the surveys. 

Table 2.1, shows the cutpoint between poor and not poor would be a value of +0.9969 and between poor 

and extremely poor would be -0.2754. For Vietnam in 2002, this means that 46% of the household 

population was extremely poor, 38% was poor but not extremely, and 16% was not poor. For Benin in 

2006, 70% of the household population was extremely poor, 25% was poor but not extremely, and just 

5% was not poor. 

An approach to assigning a monetary value to the wealth score would be to translate it into per capita 

income. However, while both income and wealth are measures of economic status, they are not equivalent 

concepts. Income can vary substantially due to market fluctuations and boom and bust times while wealth 

is much less volatile. Permanent income as espoused by Milton Friedman (1957) is a more useful measure 

since it represents long-run household conditions and decision-making rather than the vagaries of shortrun fluctuations. Moreover, the DHS wealth index is a household measure while Gross National Income 

(GNI) includes income not distributed to households. Additionally, the DHS wealth index is not as 

affected by the large inequalities of income distribution that shape the GNI. 

 

13 For example, in Africa the development of infrastructure for landlines was effectively outpaced by widespread use 

of mobile phones and, in many communities, landline phones are not available (Aker and Mbiti, 2010). 
14 

Be that as it may, one way to proceed would be to obtain GNI/P at PPP for each country at the time of the 

DHS survey and then regress the comparative wealth scores for each country (and survey period) against 

income per capita. (Note that the form of the regression may not necessarily be linear.) Then use the 

coefficients from this regression to estimate the income index corresponding to the CWI. The validity of 

the regression depends in part on the assumption that assets have a monotonically increasing relationship 

with permanent income. 
15 

3 Results 

3.1 Levels of Wealth 

The experimental Comparative Wealth Index (CWI) was computed for 172 DHS surveys conducted 

between 1990 and 2012. Of the 172 surveys, 87 were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa, 21 in North 

Africa/West Asia/Eastern Europe, 4 in Central Asia, 28 in South and Southeast Asia, and 32 in Latin 

America and the Caribbean. Table 3.1 presents the results of producing CWIs for the 172 DHS surveys, 

while Figure 3.1 provides a visual representation of the results, by level of mean CWI score. Turkey in 

2003 has the highest mean and Malawi 2004 has the lowest. The highest levels of divergence in the 

wealth index scores, as noted by the standard deviation values, occur in Guatemala 1998-99, Peru 

1991-92, and South Africa 1998, indicating higher levels of economic inequality, and the lowest levels of 

divergence of the wealth scores are in Rwanda 1992 and Malawi 1992, indicating less inequality and 

more economically homogenous societies. Compared with the baseline, the unweighted average of the 

means of the CWI scores for all 172 surveys is -0.124 and the unweighted average of the standard 

deviations is 0.948 (Table 3.2). The average survey date is 2002, the year of the baseline. Given that the 

median per capita income among DHS countries was used to choose the baseline—and it might be 

expected that averages would be closer to 0 for the mean and closer to 1 for the standard deviation—in 

fact, many countries have multiple surveys. The average below 0 thus indicates that the relatively poorer 

countries are those with more surveys.14

By region, the 21 surveys in North Africa, West Asia, and Eastern Europe have the highest average of the 

means of the wealth scores. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest average of the means. Of the 87 surveys 

conducted in sub-Saharan Africa over the 23-year period, only 6 surveys (Gabon 2000 and 2012, Namibia 

2006-07, São Tomé and Principe 2008-09, South Africa 1998, and Swaziland 2006-07) have a mean 

wealth score greater than 0. The Latin America and Caribbean region has the highest average value of 

standard deviations, indicating greater divergence of wealth than the other regions (Table 3.2). 

Table 3.1 Values of comparative wealth index in relation to baseline, mean, and standard 

deviation, DHS surveys, 1990-2012 

Region and country Year Mean Standard deviation 

Sub-Saharan Africa 

Benin 1996 -0.909 1.038 

Benin 2001 -0.927 0.983 

Benin 2006 -0.634 0.833 

Burkina Faso 1993 -0.880 0.694 

Burkina Faso 1998-99 -0.889 0.684 

Burkina Faso 2003 -0.968 0.906 

Cameroon 1991 -0.588 1.014 

Cameroon 1998 -0.546 1.059 

Cameroon 2004 -0.418 0.887 

Cameroon 2011 -0.283 0.824 

CAR 1994-95 -0.962 0.488 

(Continued...)

 

14 Gross National Income per capita also includes non-household income, so countries might have been ranked 

differently if only household income (not available) had been used to select the baseline. 
16 

Table 3.1 – Continued

Region and country Year Mean Standard deviation 

Chad 1996-97 -0.962 0.298 

Chad 2004 -1.089 0.508 

Comoros 1996 -0.740 0.880 

Congo (Brazzaville) 2005 -0.346 0.727 

Congo Democratic 

Republic 2007 -0.626 0.551 

Côte d'Ivoire 1994 -0.252 1.108 

Côte d'Ivoire 1998-99 -0.335 1.147 

Côte d'Ivoire 2011-12 -0.418 0.828 

Eritrea 1995 -1.177 0.872 

Eritrea 2002 -1.022 1.077 

Ethiopia 2000 -1.088 0.575 

Ethiopia 2005 -1.401 0.677 

Ethiopia 2011 -1.281 0.842 

Gabon 2000 0.344 1.132 

Gabon 2012 0.509 0.802 

Ghana 1993 -0.573 0.868 

Ghana 1998 -0.339 0.794 

Ghana 2003 -0.360 0.925 

Ghana 2008 -0.074 0.943 

Guinea 1999 -0.663 0.798 

Guinea 2005 -0.619 0.869 

Kenya 1993 -0.832 0.592 

Kenya 1998 -0.686 0.857 

Kenya 2003 -0.700 0.985 

Kenya 2008-09 -0.501 0.894 

Lesotho 2004 -0.597 1.033 

Lesotho 2009 -0.362 1.012 

Liberia 2007 -0.720 0.807 

Madagascar 1997 -0.733 0.611 

Madagascar 2003-04 -0.514 0.878 

Madagascar 2008-09 -0.843 0.865 

Malawi 1992 -0.990 0.271 

Malawi 2000 -1.013 0.339 

Malawi 2004 -1.014 0.733 

Malawi 2010 -0.890 0.734 

Mali 1995-96 -0.643 0.438 

Mali 2001 -1.081 0.833 

Mali 2006 -0.876 0.851 

Mauritania 2000-01 -0.729 0.901 

Mozambique 1997 -0.927 0.506 

Mozambique 2003 -0.874 0.676 

Mozambique 2011 -0.687 0.796 

Namibia 1992 -0.145 1.296 

Namibia 2000 -0.132 1.352 

Namibia 2006-07 0.096 1.285 

Niger 1998 -1.043 0.581 

Niger 2006 -1.042 0.587 

Nigeria 2003 -0.249 1.019 

Nigeria 2008 -0.165 0.796 

(Continued...)
17 

Table 3.1 – Continued

Region and country Year Mean Standard deviation 

Rwanda 1992 -1.054 0.252 

Rwanda 2000 -1.276 0.592 

Rwanda 2005 -0.965 0.447 

Rwanda 2007-08 -0.929 0.472 

Rwanda 2010 -0.600 0.434 

Sao Tome and Principe 2008-09 0.128 1.091 

Senegal 1997 -0.398 1.109 

Senegal 2005 -0.295 1.318 

Senegal 2010-11 -0.337 0.705 

Sierra Leone 2008 -0.752 0.697 

South Africa 1998 0.681 1.606 

Swaziland 2006-07 0.087 1.104 

Tanzania 1996 -0.901 0.546 

Tanzania 1999 -0.910 0.629 

Tanzania 2003-04 -0.797 0.844 

Tanzania 2010 -0.682 0.801 

Togo 1998 -0.701 0.794 

Uganda 1995 -0.927 0.387 

Uganda 2000-01 -1.284 0.614 

Uganda 2006 -0.872 0.651 

Zambia 1996 -0.706 1.066 

Zambia 2001-02 -0.841 1.054 

Zambia 2007 -0.668 1.076 

Zimbabwe 1994 -0.301 1.090 

Zimbabwe 1999 -0.197 1.061 

Zimbabwe 2005-06 -0.126 1.141 

Zimbabwe 2010-11 -0.037 0.939 

North Africa-West Asia-Europe 

Albania 2008-09 1.338 0.638 

Armenia 2000 1.236 0.829 

Armenia 2005 1.819 1.140 

Azerbaijan 2006 1.254 0.987 

Egypt 1995 0.746 1.351 

Egypt 2000 1.027 1.120 

Egypt 2003 1.390 1.146 

Egypt 2005 1.456 1.005 

Egypt 2008 1.566 0.943 

Jordan 1997 1.268 0.558 

Jordan 2002 1.860 0.795 

Jordan 2007 1.687 1.004 

Jordan 2009 1.520 0.864 

Moldova 2005 1.296 1.233 

Morocco 1992 0.071 1.460 

Morocco 2003-04 0.707 1.405 

Turkey 1993 1.286 1.293 

Turkey 1998 1.585 1.190 

Turkey 2003 2.059 1.305 

Ukraine 2007 1.684 0.910 

Yemen 1997 -0.453 1.255 

(Continued...)
18 

Table 3.1 – Continued

Region and country Year Mean Standard deviation 

Central Asia 

Kazakhstan 1995 0.682 0.689 

Kazakhstan 1999 0.830 0.740 

Kyrgyz Republic 1997 0.500 0.812 

Uzbekistan 1996 0.648 0.768 

South and Southeast Asia 

Bangladesh 1993-94 -1.120 0.506 

Bangladesh 1996-97 -0.960 0.536 

Bangladesh 1999-2000 -0.803 0.609 

Bangladesh 2004 -0.855 0.755 

Bangladesh 2007 -0.807 0.762 

Bangladesh 2011 -0.661 1.032 

Cambodia 2000 -0.684 0.715 

Cambodia 2005 -0.609 0.877 

Cambodia 2010 -0.356 0.915 

India 1992-3 -0.986 1.199 

India 1998-99 -0.050 0.920 

India 2005-06 -0.368 1.270 

Indonesia 1997 0.127 1.114 

Indonesia 2002-03 0.017 1.219 

Indonesia 2007 0.682 1.045 

Indonesia 2012 0.696 0.876 

Maldives 2009 0.883 0.807 

Nepal 1996 -1.144 0.423 

Nepal 2001 -1.120 0.636 

Nepal 2006 -0.775 0.879 

Nepal 2011 -0.366 0.992 

Pakistan 2006-07 -0.076 1.309 

Philippines 1998 0.482 1.222 

Philippines 2003 0.724 1.433 

Philippines 2008 0.495 1.224 

Timor-Leste 2009 -0.311 0.519 

Vietnam 1997 -0.379 0.892 

Vietnam--baseline 2002 -0.035 0.977 

Latin America and Caribbean 

Bolivia 1994 -0.160 1.049 

Bolivia 1998 0.324 1.465 

Bolivia 2003 0.069 1.421 

Bolivia 2008 0.338 1.310 

Brazil 1996 1.114 1.006 

Colombia 1990 0.946 1.265 

Colombia 1995 1.076 1.270 

Colombia 2000 1.715 1.304 

Colombia 2005 0.905 1.056 

Colombia 2010 1.404 0.979 

Dominican Republic 1996 0.281 1.295 

Dominican Republic 1999 0.911 0.900 

Dominican Republic 2002 1.173 1.103 

(Continued...)
19 

Table 3.1 – Continued

Region and country Year Mean Standard deviation 

Dominican Republic 2007 1.156 1.257 

Guatemala 1995 -0.272 1.434 

Guatemala 1998-99 -0.161 1.606 

Guyana 2009 1.361 1.078 

Haiti 1994-95 -0.558 1.142 

Haiti 2000 -0.615 1.170 

Haiti 2005-06 -0.509 1.017 

Haiti 2012 -0.371 0.671 

Honduras 2005-06 0.225 1.596 

Honduras 2011-2012 0.401 1.300 

Nicaragua 1998 -0.283 1.464 

Nicaragua 2001 -0.313 1.457 

Peru 1991-92 0.520 1.623 

Peru 1996 0.196 1.415 

Peru 2000 0.319 1.371 

Peru 2004-08 0.388 1.348 

Peru 2009 0.397 1.309 

Peru 2010 0.451 1.327 

Peru 2011 0.539 1.266 

Table 3.2 Mean comparative wealth index by region, average of means and average of standard 

deviations (SD), DHS surveys 

Region Date Average of means Average of standard deviations 

Sub-Saharan Africa 2002.0 -0.633 0.824 

North Africa/West Asia/Europe 2002.1 1.257 1.068 

Central Asia 1996.8 0.665 0.752 

South and Southeast Asia 2003.1 -0.298 0.917 

Latin America and Caribbean 2001.8 0.405 1.259 

All 2002.0 -0.124 0.948 
20 

Figure 3.1a Comparative wealth indexes for DHS surveys, by level of mean CWI score, 1990-2012 

15 14

13 12 11 10

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

1

172 171 170169 168 167 166 165 164163 162 161 160 159 158

157 156 155 154 153 152 151 150 149148 147 146 145 144 143142

141 140 139 138 137 136 135 134 133

132 131

130129 128

127

126 125 124 123 122 121 120 119 118

117 116 115 114

113 112 111

110

109

108 107 106 105 104 103 102 101 100 9998 97

96 95 94 93 92 91 90 8988 87 86

8584

83 82 81 80 79 7877 76 75 74 73 7271 70 69

68 67 66 65 64 63 62 61 60 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 5049 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37

36 35 34

33

32 31 30 29 28 27 2625

24

23 22 21 20 19 18

17 16

-1 SD

+1 SD

0 1 2 3 -2 -1 -3
21 

Figure 3.1b List of the names of the surveys 

Number Country and survey year Number Country and survey year 

1 Ethiopia 2005 44 Tanzania 2003-04 

2 Uganda 2000-01 45 Nepal 2006 

3 Ethiopia 2011 46 Sierra Leone 2008 

4 Rwanda 2000 47 Comoros 1996 

5 Eritrea 1995 48 Madagascar 1997 

6 Nepal 1996 49 Mauritania 2000-01 

7 Bangladesh 1993-94 50 Liberia 2007 

8 Nepal 2001 51 Zambia 1996 

9 Chad 2004 52 Togo 1998 

10 Ethiopia 2000 53 Kenya 2003 

11 Mali 2001 54 Mozambique 2011 

12 Rwanda 1992 55 Kenya 1998 

13 Niger 1998 56 Cambodia 2000 

14 Niger 2006 57 Tanzania 2010 

15 Eritrea 2002 58 Zambia 2007 

16 Malawi 2004 59 Guinea 1999 

17 Malawi 2000 60 Bangladesh 2011 

18 Malawi 1992 61 Mali 1995-96 

19 India 1992-3 62 Benin 2006 

20 Burkina Faso 2003 63 Congo Democratic Republic 2007 

21 Rwanda 2005 64 Guinea 2005 

22 Chad 1996-97 65 Haiti 2000 

23 CAR 1994-95 66 Cambodia 2005 

24 Bangladesh 1996-97 67 Rwanda 2010 

25 Rwanda 2007-08 68 Lesotho 2004 

26 Uganda 1995 69 Cameroon 1991 

27 Mozambique 1997 70 Ghana 1993 

28 Benin 2001 71 Haiti 1994-95 

29 Tanzania 1999 72 Cameroon 1998 

30 Benin 1996 73 Madagascar 2003-04 

31 Tanzania 1996 74 Haiti 2005-06 

32 Malawi 2010 75 Kenya 2008-09 

33 Burkina Faso 1998-99 76 Yemen 1997 

34 Burkina Faso 1993 77 Cameroon 2004 

35 Mali 2006 78 Cote d'Ivoire 2011-12 

36 Mozambique 2003 79 Senegal 1997 

37 Uganda 2006 80 Vietnam 1997 

38 Bangladesh 2004 81 Haiti 2012 

39 Madagascar 2008-09 82 India 2005-06 

40 Zambia 2001-02 83 Nepal 2011 

41 Kenya 1993 84 Lesotho 2009 

42 Bangladesh 2007 85 Ghana 2003 

43 Bangladesh 1999-2000 86 Cambodia 2010 

(Continued...)
22 

Figure 3.1b – Continued

Number Country and survey year Number Country and survey year 

87 Congo Brazzaville 2005 130 Philippines 1998 

88 Ghana 1998 131 Philippines 2008 

89 Senegal 2010-11 132 Kyrgyz Republic 1997 

90 Cote d'Ivoire 1998-99 133 Gabon 2012 

91 Nicaragua 2001 134 Peru 1991-92 

92 Timor-Leste 2009 135 Peru 2011 

93 Zimbabwe 1994 136 Uzbekistan 1996 

94 Senegal 2005 137 South Africa 1998 

95 Cameroon 2011 138 Indonesia 2007 

96 Nicaragua 1998 139 Kazakhstan 1995 

97 Guatemala 1995 140 Indonesia 2012 

98 Cote d'Ivoire 1994 141 Morocco 2003-04 

99 Nigeria 2003 142 Philippines 2003 

100 Zimbabwe 1999 143 Egypt 1995 

101 Nigeria 2008 144 Kazakhstan 1999 

102 Guatemala 1998-99 145 Maldives 2009 

103 Bolivia 1994 146 Colombia 2005 

104 Namibia 1992 147 Dominican Republic 1999 

105 Namibia 2000 148 Colombia 1990 

106 Zimbabwe 2005-06 149 Egypt 2000 

107 Pakistan 2006-07 150 Colombia 1995 

108 Ghana 2008 151 Brazil 1996 

109 India 1998-99 152 Dominican Republic 2007 

110 Zimbabwe 2010-11 153 Dominican Republic 2002 

111 Vietnam--baseline 2002 154 Armenia 2000 

112 Indonesia 2002-03 155 Azerbaijan 2006 

113 Bolivia 2003 156 Jordan 1997 

114 Morocco 1992 157 Turkey 1993 

115 Swaziland 2006-07 158 Moldova 2005 

116 Namibia 2006-07 159 Albania 2008-09 

117 Indonesia 1997 160 Guyana 2009 

118 Sao Tome and Principe 2008-09 161 Egypt 2003 

119 Peru 1996 162 Colombia 2010 

120 Honduras 2005-06 163 Egypt 2005 

121 Dominican Republic 1996 164 Jordan 2009 

122 Peru 2000 165 Egypt 2008 

123 Bolivia 1998 166 Turkey 1998 

124 Bolivia 2008 167 Ukraine 2007 

125 Gabon 2000 168 Jordan 2007 

126 Peru 2004-08 169 Colombia 2000 

127 Peru 2009 170 Armenia 2005 

128 Honduras 2011-12 171 Jordan 2002 

129 Peru 2010 172 Turkey 2003 
23 

3.2 Trends in Wealth 

For countries with multiple DHS surveys,15 Table 3.3 shows the average change in the mean CWI 

between the earliest and the latest surveys. Of the 45 countries with more than one wealth index, 37 have 

had an increase in the mean CWI, while 7 countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, 

Madagascar, Mali, and Nicaragua) have had a decline. One country (Niger) remained unchanged. 

Table 3.3 Trends in mean comparative wealth index score by country 

Country 

Year of 

latest 

survey 

Mean 

comparative 

score 

Change from earliest to latest survey 

Years Mean Per 5-years 

Sub-Saharan Africa 

Benin 2006 -0.634 10.0 0.276 0.138 

Burkina Faso 2003 -0.968 10.0 -0.088 -0.044 

Cameroon 2011 -0.283 20.0 0.304 0.076 

Chad 2004 -1.089 7.5 -0.127 -0.085 

Côte d'Ivoire 2011-12 -0.418 17.5 -0.166 -0.048 

Eritrea 2002 -1.022 7.0 0.155 0.111 

Ethiopia 2011 -1.281 11.0 -0.193 -0.088 

Gabon 2012 0.509 12.0 0.165 0.069 

Ghana 2008 -0.074 15.0 0.498 0.166 

Guinea 2005 -0.619 6.0 0.044 0.036 

Kenya 2008-09 -0.501 15.5 0.331 0.107 

Lesotho 2009 -0.362 5.0 0.235 0.235 

Madagascar 2008-09 -0.843 11.5 -0.110 -0.048 

Malawi 2010 -0.890 18.0 0.100 0.028 

Mali 2006 -0.876 10.5 -0.233 -0.111 

Mozambique 2011 -0.687 14.0 0.240 0.086 

Namibia 2006-07 0.096 14.5 0.241 0.083 

Niger 2006 -1.042 8.0 0.001 0.000 

Nigeria 2008 -0.165 5.0 0.084 0.084 

Rwanda 2010 -0.600 18.0 0.453 0.126 

Senegal 2010-11 -0.337 13.5 0.062 0.023 

Tanzania 2010 -0.682 14.0 0.219 0.078 

Uganda 2006 -0.872 11.0 0.054 0.025 

Zimbabwe 2010-11 -0.037 16.5 0.264 0.080 

North Africa-West Asia-Europe 

Armenia 2005 1.819 5.0 0.583 0.583 

Egypt 2008 1.566 13.0 0.820 0.315 

Jordan 2009 1.520 12.0 0.252 0.105 

Morocco 2003-04 0.707 11.5 0.636 0.277 

Turkey 2003 2.059 10.0 0.772 0.386 

Central Asia 

Kazakhstan 1999 0.830 4.0 0.148 0.185 

(Continued...)

 

15 Excluding the DHS-I countries for which a wealth index is not calculated. 
24 

Table 3.3 – Continued

Country 

Year of 

latest 

survey 

Mean 

comparative 

score 

Change from earliest to latest survey 

Years Mean Per 5 years 

South and Southeast Asia 

Bangladesh 2011 -0.661 17.5 0.459 0.131 

Cambodia 2010 -0.356 10.0 0.328 0.164 

India 2005-06 -0.368 13.0 0.618 0.238 

Indonesia 2012 0.696 15.0 0.568 0.189 

Nepal 2011 -0.366 15.0 0.778 0.259 

Philippines 2008 0.495 10.0 0.013 0.006 

Vietnam 2002 -0.035 5.0 0.344 0.344 

Latin America and Caribbean 

Bolivia 2008 0.338 14.0 0.498 0.178 

Colombia 2010 1.404 20.0 0.458 0.114 

Dominican Republic 2007 1.156 11.0 0.876 0.398 

Guatemala 1998-99 -0.161 3.5 0.110 0.157 

Haiti 2012 -0.371 17.5 0.187 0.053 

Honduras 2011-2012 0.401 6.0 0.176 0.147 

Nicaragua 2001 -0.313 3.0 -0.030 -0.051 

Peru 2011 0.539 19.5 0.019 0.005 

Because the number of years between surveys in the same country can vary, the five-year average change 

is a better indicator for use in comparing trends in wealth across countries. All 45 countries together had 

an increase of 0.118 in the CWI score as a five-year average change. The country with the greatest 

increase in the five-year mean CWI score was Armenia (+0.583), while Mali had the greatest decrease in 

the five-year mean CWI score (-0.111). By region, the five-year average increase in the CWI score was 

greatest in the North Africa/West Asia/Europe region (+0.333) and smallest in sub-Saharan Africa 

(+0.047) (Table 3.4). 

Table 3.4 Trends in mean comparative wealth index score by region, DHS surveys 1998-2012 

Region 

Years between first and 

last surveys Change Five-year average change 

Sub-Saharan Africa 12.1 0.117 0.047 

North Africa-West Asia-Europe 10.3 0.613 0.333 

Central Asia (Kazakhstan only) 4.0 0.148 0.185 

South and Southeast Asia 12.2 0.444 0.190 

Latin America and Caribbean 11.8 0.287 0.125 

All 11.7 0.254 0.118 

3.3 Monetary Equivalents 

Keeping in mind the caveats given above, Figure 3.2 shows the relationship between the means of the 

CWI and the natural logarithm of GNI/p at ppp; Figure 3.3 shows the relationship as a fit line plot. There 

are several outliers, which is instructive regarding differences between the two types of values. Three 

former Soviet republics (Moldova, Armenia, and Ukraine) lie much above the trend line, indicating that 
25 

on average the population has a better economic status than that predicted by GNI/p at ppp. This anomaly 

may be due to either a recent decline in or an underestimation of GNI. Similarly, Zimbabwe lies well 

above the trend line, most likely due to its deteriorating economic situation. In the opposite direction, 

Gabon, with its high level of petroleum exports, is the DHS country with the highest GNI/p at ppp; 

however, the GNI/p at ppp is not reflected in the economic status of its population. 

Figure 3.2 Mean of comparative wealth index (CWI) versus gross national income per capita at 

purchasing power parity (GNI/p at ppp), DHS surveys 

Ethiopia

Liberia

Congo DR

Zimbabwe

Swaziland

Namibia

Gabon Peru

Moldova

Guyana

Jordan

Egypt

Ukraine

Armenia

Turkey

-2.0

-1.5

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0

Mean of Comparative Wealth Index

Ln of GNI/p at PPP
26 

Figure 3.3 Relationship between the survey mean of the comparative wealth index (CWI) and the 

logarithm of gross national income per capita (Ln GNI/p), observed points and fitted line, DHS 

surveys 

Re-estimating the trend relationship between the means of the CWI scores and GNI/p at ppp, after 

omitting these outliers gives the following: 

Ln (GNI/p) = 7.603 + 0.7609 * mean CWI 

Adjusted r2

=.784 

These coefficients can be used to estimate the per capita income equivalent for each CWI score. As an 

example, the GNI/p at ppp equivalents for the comparative wealth quintile cutpoints are the following: 

R2 = 0.784

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

-2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 Ln (GNI/p)

CWI Mean

Original values

Linear (Original values)

Four outliers removed:

Congo DR

Gabon

Liberia

Zimbabwe

Fitted line
27 

Cutpoint Value Ln(value) GNI/p 

1 -0.9080 6.909 $1,001 

2 -0.3858 7.308 $1,492 

3 -0.1189 7.512 $1,830 

4 0.7416 8.170 $3,535 

As noted earlier, these estimates should be interpreted with caution. Even at purchasing power parity 

(ppp), the price of assets themselves may vary substantially depending on such things as vintage of 

ownership, time period, and geographic access to household services and durable goods. Cross-country 

proclivities to owning the same asset at the same level of income may also vary substantially. 

29 

4 Example Applications 

Beyond ranking countries on the basis of household wealth, the Comparative Wealth Index (CWI) is 

useful in cross-country and trend analysis of demographic and health outcomes. To illustrate a few of the 

analyses that can be done, the 52 most recent16 DHS surveys for each country were pooled to analyze 

infant and child mortality, fertility, maternal health care, and children’s nutritional status. For each topic, 

means and odds ratios, or relative risks, were calculated for the CWI and for the original DHS Wealth 

Index—called a “relative wealth index” here because it is within-survey relative—separately and with 

both indexes together. Unadjusted means and odds ratios, or relative risks, are presented and adjusted for 

principal confounding variables and for country effects. 

4.1 Infant and Child Mortality 

For young child mortality, two rates were used—infant mortality (IMR) and under-5 mortality (U5MR)—

based on children born 0-59 months and children born 0-179 months preceding the survey, respectively. 

Unadjusted mortality rates for each wealth index were calculated using a life table procedure.17 Adjusted 

relative risks for mortality were calculated using Cox hazard regression.18 Table 4.1 shows the results of 

the analyses. The Wald statistic is used to measure the explanatory power of each wealth index. For each 

of the relative risk analyses the CWI has greater explanatory power, as indicated by its greater Wald 

statistic. Indeed, the relative wealth index performed badly after control variables were introduced but 

before country effects were taken into account. When country effects were taken into account the 

performance of the relative wealth index improved, indicating that the country effects are adjusting for 

differential levels in wealth. However, the CWI still has greater explanatory power even after taking 

country effects into account. 

When the indexes are considered together, the CWI has the greater explanatory power for under-5 

mortality, indicating that absolute economic status is more important than relative economic status; 

however, both indexes are related to level of mortality. For infant mortality, the relative wealth index 

becomes nonsignificant, indicating little relation to infant mortality once absolute economic status is 

taken into account. When wealth scores are used for each index rather than the quintiles—with control 

variables and country effects—the relative wealth index effect disappears, as indicated by an adjusted 

relative risk of 1.0 for a one-standard-deviation change in relative wealth, indicating no change in either 

under-5 or infant mortality. The CWI has an adjusted relative risk of 0.831 for under-5 mortality and 

0.886 for infant mortality, given each standard deviation increase in the CWI (results not shown in a 

table). 

 

16 Most recent at the time the index was constructed. See complete list of surveys in Appendix table A.1. 17 Survival procedure of IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0. 

18 Cox procedure of IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0. 
Table 4.1 Infant and under-5 mortality: Deaths per 1,000 live births, 52 latest DHS surveys since 2003 

Infant mortality rate for children born 0-59 months preceding survey Under-5 mortality rate for children born 0-179 months preceding survey 

Wealth quintile N Mean 

Relative 

risk 

Adj. 

relative 

risk 

Adj. 

mean

Adj. 

relative 

risk1 Adj. mean1

Adj. 

relative 

risk2 Adj. mean2 N Mean Relative risk 

Adj. 

relative 

risk 

Adj. 

mean

Adj. 

relative 

risk1 Adj. mean1

Adj. 

relative 

risk2 Adj. mean2

Comparative wealth quintile Wald statistic 1,902 532 123 42 18,083 4,788 1,242 411 p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 Poorest (Ref.) 182,240 .068 1.000 1.000 .068 1.000 .068 1.000 .068 507,751 .137 1.000 1.000 .137 1.000 .137 1.000 .137 Second 79,495 .060 .879 .925 .063 .957 .065 .985 .067 222,168 .111 .808 .884 .121 .897 .123 .926 .127 

Middle 39,037 .050 .735 .789 .054 .853 .059 .887 .060 110,064 .088 .635 .737 .101 .814 .112 .851 .117 

Fourth 68,103 .041 .613 .693 .047 .807 .056 .847 .058 192,576 .066 .481 .604 .083 .734 .101 .777 .106 

Wealthiest 95,399 .028 .420 .542 .037 .731 .051 .787 .054 284,699 .039 .283 .430 .059 .618 .085 .675 .092 

Total 464,274 .053 .053 .053 .053 1,317,258 .097 .097 .097 .097 Relative wealth quintile Wald statistic 253 21 91 8 3,211 67 895 52 p-value 0.000 0.003 0.000 0.076 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 Poorest (Ref.) 117,692 .058 1.000 1.000 .058 1.000 .058 1.000 .058 334,432 .113 1.000 1.000 .113 1.000 .113 1.000 .113 

Second 99,479 .057 0.978 1.044 .061 .968 .056 .982 .057 282,968 .107 0.948 1.038 .117 .948 .107 .976 .110 

Middle 92,340 .053 0.919 1.050 .061 .912 .053 .945 .055 261,187 .098 0.873 1.049 .119 .886 .100 .947 .107 

Fourth 83,508 .051 0.873 1.094 .063 .877 .051 .956 .055 236,233 .088 0.782 1.074 .121 .829 .094 .949 .107 

Wealthiest 71,255 .042 0.717 1.093 .063 .772 .045 .905 .052 202,438 .065 0.576 1.052 .119 .692 .078 .886 .100 

Total 464,274 .053 .053 .053 .053 1,317,258 .097 .097 .097 .097 Note: Other variables include mother's level of education, multiplicity of birth, sex, preceding interpregnancy interval, birth order, mother's age at birth, and type of residence 

(urban/rural). 

Odds ratios in bold are significant at the 5% level 1 Includes country dummy variable 2 Includes both wealth index variables and country dummy variables 

30 
31 

4.2 Fertility 

The indicator used for fertility level is whether or not a woman had a birth in the past year. For the means 

this indicator gives the proportions of women who had a birth and is akin to the general fertility rate 

(GFR) for women 15 to 49 years of age.19 Logistic regression is used to analyze the effects of the wealth 

indexes, producing adjusted odds ratios as the output.20 The unadjusted means and odds ratios indicate 

that both the CWI and the relative wealth index show important differences in fertility level by wealth 

quintile, and indicate that fertility declines as wealth increases (Table 4.2). Additionally, the Wald statistic 

shows that the CWI has the greater explanatory power. These results hold as control variables for age, 

education, marital status, and urban-rural residence are included in the regressions. However, after adding 

country effects, the explanatory advantage of the CWI is only slightly greater than that of the relative 

wealth index. When both indexes are included in the regression analysis, the results indicate that both 

absolute and relative wealth are important in determining fertility level. 

Table 4.2 Fertility: Whether women 15-49 had a birth in the year preceding the survey, 52 latest 

DHS surveys since 2003 

Wealth quintile N 

Births per woman in 12 months preceding survey (General Fertility Rate) 

Mean 

Odds 

ratio 

Adj. odds 

ratio 

Adj. 

mean 

Adj. odds 

ratio1 Adj. 

mean 1 Adj. odds ratio2 Adj. mean 2

Comparative 

wealth quintile

Wald statistic 12,872 2,470 1,269 261 

p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 

Poorest (Ref.) 215,788 .187 1.000 1.000 .187 1.000 .187 1.000 .187 

Second 116,842 .148 0.755 0.883 .169 0.849 .163 0.915 .174 

Middle 67,567 .129 0.645 0.780 .152 0.786 .153 0.864 .166 

Fourth 136,587 .110 0.539 0.665 .133 0.687 .136 0.776 .151 

Wealthiest 264,911 .078 0.370 0.534 .109 0.595 .120 0.717 .142 

Total 801,695 .128 .128 .128 .128 

Relative wealth 

quintile

Wald statistic 5,579 523 1,175 164 

p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 

Poorest (Ref.) 151,977 .169 1.000 1.000 .169 1.000 .169 1.000 .169 

Second 152,139 .146 0.838 0.905 .155 0.877 .151 0.920 .158 

Middle 156,772 .129 0.724 0.846 .147 0.791 .139 0.864 .149 

Fourth 162,364 .114 0.633 0.823 .143 0.732 .130 0.855 .148 

Wealthiest 178,443 .087 0.470 0.754 .133 0.613 .111 0.775 .136 

Total 801,695 .128 .128 .128 .128 

Note: Other variables include: five-year age group, level of education, current marital status, and type of residence 

(urban/rural). 

Odds ratios in bold are significant at the 5% 1

Includes country dummy variable 

2

 Includes both wealth index variables and country dummy variables level 

 

19 Among all these women, only one had more than 1 birth in the year preceding the interview; it was a multiple 

birth of four children. 

20 Logistic Regression procedure of IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0. 
32 

4.3 Maternal Health Care 

Two indicators of maternal health care are analyzed here for live births that occurred in the five years 

preceding the survey: 1) whether the mother received recommended minimum prenatal care (four or more 

visits, with the first beginning in the first trimester of the pregnancy) and 2) whether the delivery took 

place in a health facility. In addition to the two wealth indexes, control variables were the mother’s age at 

interview, the mother’s level of education, the husband’s level of education (if married), and residence 

(urban or rural). An additional variable for facility deliveries was whether the mother had received the 

recommended minimum prenatal care. Logistic regression was used for analysis of both indicators. 

For the recommended minimum prenatal care, the explanatory power of the CWI is much greater than 

that of the relative wealth index for unadjusted odds ratios and for adjusted odds ratios, without including 

country effects. For the adjusted odds ratios with the control variables, the CWI has significant results 

showing an increase in the prenatal care indicator with wealth (Table 4.3, first panel). At the same time, 

the effect of the relative wealth index is small and inconsistent; however, after country effects were 

introduced, the relative wealth index regains explanatory power such that the results for each index are 

similar. Including both indexes in the analysis indicates that absolute and relative wealth are about equally 

important in explaining recommended minimum prenatal care, with relative wealth having a little stronger 

relationship. 

For delivery in a health facility, the results are similar to those for prenatal care, with the exception that 

relative wealth is still quite important even after control variables were introduced into the regression 

analysis. Indeed, the final columns of Table 4.3 show that, after including country effects, both relative 

and absolute wealth are equally important in explaining differences in health facility deliveries. 
Table 4.3 Maternal health: Proper prenatal care (four or more visits starting in the first trimester of pregnancy) and delivery in a health 

facility, last birth in the five years preceding survey 

Wealth quintile N 

Proper prenatal care (4 or more visits starting in the first 

trimester of pregnancy) Delivery in a health facility 

Mean 

Odds 

ratio 

Adj. 

odds 

ratio 

Adj. 

mean

Adj. 

odds 

ratio1 Adj. mean1

Adj. 

odds 

ratio2 Adj. mean2 Mean Odds ratio 

Adj. 

odds 

ratio 

Adj. 

mean

Adj. 

odds 

ratio1 Adj. mean1

Adj. 

odds 

ratio2 Adj. mean2

Comparative wealth quintile Wald statistic 43,451 8,129 3,206 489 45,681 5,485 6,899 1,468 p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 

Poorest (Ref.) 115,504 .181 1.000 1.000 .181 1.000 .181 1.000 .181 .348 1.000 1.000 .348 1.000 .348 1.000 .348 Second 52,322 .294 1.883 1.495 .248 1.360 .231 1.190 .208 .526 2.083 1.479 .441 1.918 .506 1.558 .454 

Middle 26,738 .390 2.880 1.959 .302 1.532 .253 1.240 .215 .641 3.356 1.780 .487 2.648 .586 2.017 .518 

Fourth 47,054 .488 4.296 2.494 .355 1.850 .290 1.379 .234 .736 5.241 2.264 .547 3.386 .644 2.317 .553 

Wealthiest 68,641 .671 9.193 3.854 .460 2.793 .382 1.783 .283 .852 10.828 3.105 .624 4.556 .709 2.490 .571 

Total 310,259 .373 .373 .373 .373 .574 .574 .574 .574 

Relative wealth quintile Wald statistic 10,173 94 3,261 562 26,933 4,636 6,316 903 p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 

Poorest (Ref.) 74,423 .272 1.000 1.000 .272 1.000 .272 1.000 .272 .328 1.000 1.000 .328 1.000 .328 1.000 .328 

Second 65,228 .323 1.276 .979 .268 1.252 .319 1.124 .296 .494 1.590 1.338 .395 1.543 .430 1.335 .395 Middle 61,861 .367 1.546 .950 .262 1.530 .364 1.265 .321 .575 2.212 1.556 .432 1.981 .492 1.435 .412 

Fourth 57,331 .420 1.934 .895 .251 1.910 .416 1.445 .351 .677 3.451 1.904 .482 2.710 .569 1.571 .434 

Wealthiest 51,416 .538 3.115 .889 .249 2.859 .516 1.873 .412 .830 8.201 2.894 .586 4.863 .704 2.387 .538 

Total 310,259 .373 .373 .373 .373 .574 .574 .574 .574 

Note: Other variables include mother's level of education, husband's level of education, birth order, mother's age, type of residence (urban/rural), and proper prenatal care for health 

facility delivery. 

Odds ratios in bold are significant at the 5% level

1 Includes country dummy variable 

2 Includes both wealth index variables and country dummy variables 

33 
34 

4.4 Children’s Nutritional Status 

This illustrative use of the CWI and relative wealth indexes looks at children’s nutritional status, as 

measured by stunting (chronic malnutrition) and wasting (acute malnutrition). The proportions of children 

under age 5 who were stunted (below -2 SD for height-for-age) and who were wasted (below -2 SD for 

weight-for-height) were chosen as indicators of the nutritional status of young children.21 The CWI is 

related to the levels of both indicators, even after including control variables and country effects; as 

expected, the relationship is stronger for stunting than for wasting (Table 4.4). The relative wealth index 

is less strongly related to stunting than the CWI, but once country effects are taken into account the 

relative wealth index has about the same strength of relationship with wasting as the CWI. Including both 

indexes together in the analysis of stunting shows that both absolute wealth and relative wealth affect 

chronic malnutrition. Such is not the case for acute malnutrition though because the relationship of the 

relative wealth index turns nonsignificant (in the analysis of wasting), while that of the CWI remains 

significant even though its power is reduced. 

 

21 The proportions stunted and wasted are based on the CDC/NCHS/WHO reference population nutritional standard. 
Table 4.4 Nutritional status indicators (stunting and wasting) for children age 0-59 months, 52 latest DHS surveys since 2003 

Stunting: Children age 0-59 months Wasting: Children age 0-59 months 

Wealth quintile N Mean 

Odds 

ratio 

Adj. 

Odds 

ratio 

Adj. 

mean

Adj. 

Odds 

ratio1 Adj. mean1

Adj. 

Odds 

ratio2 Adj. mean2 N Mean Odds ratio 

Adj. 

Odds 

ratio 

Adj. 

mean

Adj. 

Odds 

ratio1 Adj. mean1

Adj. 

Odds 

ratio2 Adj. mean2

Comparative wealth quintile Wald statistic 14498 4489 3131 1031 1923 468 189 42 p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 Poorest (Ref.) 113,419 .406 1.000 1.000 .406 1.000 .406 1.000 .406 113,798 .108 1.000 1.000 .108 1.000 .108 1.000 .108 Second 48,497 .351 0.791 .871 .373 .749 .339 .808 .356 48,589 .094 .856 .970 .105 .853 .093 .898 .098 

Middle 24,165 .273 0.549 .653 .309 .610 .294 .666 .313 24,213 .078 .702 .834 .091 .782 .086 .830 .091 

Fourth 41,273 .214 0.405 .509 .258 .497 .254 .554 .275 41,326 .067 .603 .746 .083 .748 .083 .803 .088 

Wealthiest 59,657 .133 0.233 .337 .187 .351 .193 .418 .222 59,673 .047 .423 .561 .063 .689 .077 .769 .085 

Total 287,011 .299 .299 .299 .299 287,599 .084 .084 .084 .084 

Relative wealth quintile Wald statistic 4850 288 2302 159 125 125 182 34 p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.135 

Poorest (Ref.) 70,832 .367 1.000 1.000 .367 1.000 .367 1.000 .367 71,039 .090 1.000 1.000 .090 1.000 .090 1.000 .090 

Second 60,952 .327 0.836 0.927 .350 .811 .320 .893 .341 61,095 .085 0.938 1.014 .091 .886 .081 .901 .082 

Middle 57,784 .301 0.735 0.907 .345 .706 .290 .850 .330 57,916 .085 0.933 1.098 .098 .840 .077 .896 .081 

Fourth 52,653 .265 0.613 0.884 .339 .600 .258 .864 .334 52,724 .081 0.881 1.167 .104 .780 .072 .891 .081 

Wealthiest 44,790 .188 0.391 0.753 .304 .420 .196 .768 .308 44,825 .073 0.788 1.299 .114 .692 .064 .842 .077 

Total 287,011 .299 .299 .299 .299 287,599 .084 .084 .084 .084 Note: Other variables include mother's level of education, mother's work status, type of residence (urban/rural), and child's age. 

Odds ratios in bold are significant at the 5% level

1 Includes country dummy variable 

2 Includes both wealth index variables and country dummy variables 

35 

37 

5 Conclusions and Limitations 

5.1 Summary 

This document outlines a procedure for making the country-specific DHS Wealth Indexes comparable to 

one another through the use of a baseline survey and linking (or anchoring) items that are present in 

almost all DHS surveys carried out since the 1990s. The selection of linking items was designed to 

include salient assets that cover the range of economic status indicators seen in the populations surveyed 

by the Demographic and Health Surveys program. The experimental Comparative Wealth Index (CWI) 

procedure makes full use of the information available in each of the surveys and allows for both level and 

dispersion adjustments to the baseline. It also allows for the addition of new surveys as they occur. 

The Comparative Wealth Index produces results in the form of rankings of countries and regions—based 

on the calculation of means and standard deviations for each survey—as well as trends and regional 

averages that generally comport with per capita income measures. 

In the illustrative analyses undertaken here for indicators of young child mortality, fertility, maternal 

health care, and child nutritional status, the CWI performed well, indicating that absolute levels of wealth 

are as important and usually more important than relative levels of wealth. However, the CWI does not 

completely replace the DHS Wealth Index and, in most of the analyses, both were found to be related to 

the outcome indicators. Using the CWI in trend analysis within countries may help to sort out the effects 

due to health programs focused on the poor versus the effects due to changes in the economic status of the 

population. Overall, the experimental CWI provides new options for analysis and investigation of health 

disparities across countries and over time. 

5.2 Limitations 

The methods described here are an initial approach to the development of a more widely applicable 

wealth index. Selection of the anchoring point criteria was limited here for purposes of illustration, and 

the results of the analyses could vary if other criteria were used. Indeed, not all surveys have all of the 

selected criteria. Most notably absent was information on the number of sleeping rooms (used for the 

household crowding point in the Unsatisfied Basic Needs scale), information on the sharing of toilet 

facilities with other households (used for the sanitation point), and information on possession of a fixed 

telephone. Within each survey, the number of workers in a household (used in the economic dependency 

point of the UBN) is not available if there were no individual interviews conducted in that household 

(which was then assumed to have one worker). The head of household in DHS surveys is defined by 

respondents and is likely, but not necessarily, the economic provider. The quantity and quality of assets, 

for example, number or type of cars and trucks, are not captured by DHS surveys. While the original 

purpose of the wealth index was to develop a measure of economic status independent of education or 

health, the approach here indirectly includes data on education in the assessment of a point for economic 

dependency in the UBN anchoring scores. 

Because the DHS Wealth Index is country-specific and time-specific, it can function as a type of estimate 

of permanent income of the kind espoused by Milton Friedman (1957) that is somewhat independent of 

transient fluctuations in monetary income. Assets provide a more stable picture of household economic 

status than income, particularly in less developed countries where many workers earn seasonal or variable 

incomes. However, the concept of permanent income becomes more difficult to capture with assets and 

service amenities compared across countries and time. Prices of assets and the ability to purchase them 

may vary widely across countries; for example, as previously discussed, the availability of fixed 

(landline) phone service depends on a number of factors, such as 1) the time period of the survey, 2) the 
38 

infrastructure capacity of the country, and 3) the geographic location of the household. However, these 

assets were chosen to represent the upper portion of the wealth continuum since the UBN represents the 

lower portion. Given that mobile phone ownership was rare in the 1990s and is now widespread, even 

among the poor, it is not a useful anchoring point. The monetary cost of the assets, services, and amenities 

themselves tend to vary, even after controlling for purchasing power parity. However, the selection of a 

baseline has only a small effect on the overall ranking. Still, the results presented here should be 

interpreted with caution. 

5.3 Further Research 

A variation on calculation of the UBN point for economic dependency would be using the highest level of 

education of any of the adult members of the household rather than number of workers plus education. 

Some sensitivity analysis has been conducted to test how robust the current methodology is to possible 

variations in the anchoring criteria, but further sensitivity analysis should be done to determine the effects 

of using fewer anchoring points where survey-missing items are present. Alternative ways of determining 

the baseline survey could also be tested. 

Linear regression was used to determine the coefficients for calculating Comparative Wealth Indexes 

from the relative, survey-specific DHS Wealth Indexes. Non-linear regressions should be investigated to 

find out if a specific functional form would work better. CWI could also be calculated separately for 

urban and rural areas within countries. These separate urban and rural values would then be combined 

into a Composite Comparative Wealth Index (CCWI) using calculations similar to those used for the 

country-specific composite Wealth Index. 

Alternative monetary equivalents and comparable poverty lines applicable to the Comparative Wealth 

Index should be investigated—using the UBN scale, World Bank dollars per day, or other criteria—as 

applied to the baseline survey. 

 
39 

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43 

Appendix A: Summary of Information from DHS Surveys 

Appendix Table A.1 Surveys completed for comparative wealth index, number of anchoring 

regression points used, and missing variables, DHS surveys 1991 - 2012 

Country Year 

Number of 

anchoring 

regression 

points 

Missing variables Codes used 

for HV205 

(improved 

unshared 

toilet) 

HV212-

car/truck

HV221-

(fixed) 

telephone

HV216-

sleeping 

rooms Others 

Albania 2008-09 8 

Armenia 2000 6 x x don't use 

hv212-car 

Armenia 2005 8 

Azerbaijan 2006 8 

Bangladesh 1993-94 5 x x HV209 

Bangladesh 1996-97 5 x x HV209 

Bangladesh 1999-2000 6 x x 

Bangladesh 2004 6 x x 

Bangladesh 2007 8 

Bangladesh 2011 7 

Benin 1996 6 x No improved 

unshared 

Benin 2001 7 x 

Benin 2006 8 

Bolivia 1994 6 x x 

Bolivia 1998 7 x 

Bolivia 2003 8 

Bolivia 2008 8 

Brazil 1996 7 x 

Burkina Faso 1993 7 x 

Burkina Faso 1998-99 7 

Burkina Faso 2003 7 x 

Cambodia 2000 7 x 

Cambodia 2005 7 x 

Cambodia 2010 8 

Cameroon 1991 7 x 

Cameroon 1998 7 

Cameroon 2004 8 

Cameroon 2011 8 

CAR 1994-95 8 

Chad 1996-97 8 

Chad 2004 8 

Colombia 1990 7 

Colombia 1995 8 

Colombia 2000 7 

Colombia 2005 7 x 

(Continued...)
44 

App. Table A.1 – Continued

Country Year 

Number of 

anchoring 

regression 

points 

Missing variables Codes used 

for HV205 

(improved 

unshared 

toilet) 

HV212-

car/truck

HV221-

(fixed) 

telephone

HV216-

sleeping 

rooms Others 

Colombia 2010 8 

Comoros 1996 7 

Congo 

Brazzaville 

2005 8 

Congo 

Democratic 

Republic 

2007 8 

Côte D'Ivoire 1994 7 x 

Côte D'Ivoire 1998-99 7 

Côte d'Ivoire 2011-12 8 

Dominican 

Republic 

1996 8 

Dominican 

Republic 

1999 8 

Dominican 

Republic 

2002 8 

Dominican 

Republic 

2007 8 

Egypt 1995 6 x x 

Egypt 2000 8 

Egypt 2003 8 

Egypt 2005 8 

Egypt 2008 8 

Eritrea 1995 8 

Eritrea 2002 8 

Ethiopia 2000 7 hv209 hv214 

Ethiopia 2005 8 

Ethiopia 2011 8 

Gabon 2000 8 

Gabon 2012 8 

Ghana 1993 7 x x 

Ghana 1998 8 

Ghana 2003 7 x 

Ghana 2008 8 

Guatemala 1995 8 

Guatemala 1998-99 7 

Guinea 1999 7 

Guinea 2005 8 

Guyana 2009 8 

Haiti 1994-95 7 x x 

Haiti 2000 7 x 

Haiti 2005-06 8 

Haiti 2012 8 

(Continued...)
45 

App. Table A.1 – Continued

Country Year 

Number of 

anchoring 

regression 

points 

Missing variables Codes used 

for HV205 

(improved 

unshared 

toilet) 

HV212-

car/truck

HV221-

(fixed) 

telephone

HV216-

sleeping 

rooms Others 

Honduras 2005-06 8 

Honduras 2011-2012 8 

India 1992-3 7 x 

India 1998-99 8 

India 2005-06 8 

Indonesia 1997 6 x used 

area 

hv208 not 

usable 

Indonesia 2002-03 7 used 

area 

 

Indonesia 2007 8 used 

area 

 

Indonesia 2012 8 used 

area 

 

Jordan 1997 8 

Jordan 2002 8 

Jordan 2007 8 

Jordan 2009 8 

Kazakhstan 1995 8 

Kazakhstan 1999 7 x don't use 

hv212-car 

Kenya 1993 6 x x 

Kenya 1998 8 

Kenya 2003 8 

Kenya 2008-09 8 

Kyrgyz Republic 1997 8 

Lesotho 2004 7 x 

Lesotho 2009 8 

Liberia 2007 7 x 

Madagascar 1997 8 

Madagascar 2003-04 7 x 

Madagascar 2008-09 8 

Malawi 1992 5 x hv208, hv209 

Malawi 2000 5 x x hv209 

Malawi 2004 8 

Malawi 2010 8 

Maldives 2009 8 

Mali 1995-96 8 

Mali 2001 7 

Mali 2006 8 

Mauritania 2000-01 8 

Moldova 2005 8 

Morocco 1992 7 

(Continued...)
46 

App. Table A.1 – Continued

Country Year 

Number of 

anchoring 

regression 

points 

Missing variables Codes used 

for HV205 

(improved 

unshared 

toilet) 

HV212-

car/truck

HV221-

(fixed) 

telephone

HV216-

sleeping 

rooms Others 

Morocco 2003-04 8 

Mozambique 1997 8 

Mozambique 2003 8 

Mozambique 2011 8 

Namibia 1992 7 x 

Namibia 2000 8 

Namibia 2006-07 8 

Nepal 1996 5 x x hv209 

Nepal 2001 5 x x hv209 

Nepal 2006 8 

Nepal 2011 9 

Nicaragua 1998 8 

Nicaragua 2001 8 

Niger 1998 8 

Niger 2006 8 

Nigeria 2003 8 

Nigeria 2008 8 

Pakistan 2006-07 8 

Peru 1991-92 7 x 

Peru 1996 8 

Peru 2000 8 

Peru 2004-08 8 

Peru 2009 8 

Peru 2010 8 

Peru 2011 8 

Philippines 1998 8 

Philippines 2003 7 x 

Philippines 2008 8 

Rwanda 1992 6 x hv208 no improved 

unshared toilet 

Rwanda 2000 7 x 

Rwanda 2005 7 x 

Rwanda 2007-08 7 

Rwanda 2010 8 

Sao Tome and 

Principe 

2008-09 8 

Senegal 1997 7 used 

sh22f 

 

Senegal 2005 8 

Senegal 2010-11 8 

Sierra Leone 2008 8 

South Africa 1998 8 

(Continued...)
47 

App. Table A.1 – Continued

Country Year 

Number of 

anchoring 

regression 

points 

Missing variables Codes used 

for HV205 

(improved 

unshared 

toilet) 

HV212-

car/truck

HV221-

(fixed) 

telephone

HV216-

sleeping 

rooms Others 

Swaziland 2006-07 8 

Tanzania 1996 7 x 

Tanzania 1999 7 x 

Tanzania 2003-04 8 

Tanzania 2010 8 

Timor-Leste 2009 8 

Togo 1998 7 x no improved 

unshared toilet 

Turkey 1993 8 used 

sh50j 

 

Turkey 1998 8 

Turkey 2003 8 

Uganda 1995 8 

Uganda 2000-01 7 x 

Uganda 2006 8 

Ukraine 2007 8 

Uzbekistan 1996 8 

Vietnam 1997 8 

Vietnam--

baseline 

2002 8 

Yemen 1997 7 

Zambia 1996 7 x 

Zambia 2001-02 7 x 

Zambia 2007 8 

Zimbabwe 1994 7 x 

Zimbabwe 1999 7 x 

Zimbabwe 2005-06 8 

Zimbabwe 2010-11 8