The headcount index as a percentage of the population is established. The headcount index is the percentage of the population below the poverty line. This needs to be computed at a regional or sub-regional level to cover the dryland area, depending on the country. This will not hold true in all regions and at all times, given the cyclical nature of droughts. On the other hand, poverty can be considered a State indicator wherever desertification degrades the resource base and contributes to the expansion of poverty.
Poverty is measured in terms of income.
However, populations in dryland areas may be income-poor given lack of access to markets or monetized economies, but wealthy in terms of livestock. Also, the poverty line measurement is insensitive to the distribution of income below the poverty line. Security of tenure, a key socioeconomic aspect of sustainable development in drylands, is not reflected in poverty indicators. Therefore, while the issues of poverty and population pressure are important in combating desertification, further refinement of the indicator is necessary. Disaggregation of poverty data by dryland may not be readily available.