# **3. Coastal Populations and Poverty**

By using spatially referenced data sets for infant mortality and child malnutrition, which are available for 2000, it is possible to estimate the extent of poverty among coastal populations, including those in the LECZ (see appendix). In the absence of globally gridded data sets for income or consumption-based measures of poverty, infant mortality and child malnutrition rates serve as a useful proxy for overall poverty levels because they are highly correlated with many poverty-related metrics, such as income, education levels and health status. Infant mortality rates measure the number of deaths of infants under age 1 per 1,000 live births in a given year. Child malnutrition counts are the product of malnutrition rates and population counts, with malnutrition rates based on the percentage of children with a weight-for-age z-score more than two standard deviations below the median of the NCHS/CDC/WHO International Reference Population. The globally gridded data sets of infant mortality and child malnutrition used here as proxies for poverty have been employed in other studies of the geographical extent of poverty by country (de Sherbinin 2008 and 2011; Turner et al. 2012).

As indicated in Table 3, among populations within 100 km of the coast in developing countries, there were approximately 408 million people living in areas with high levels of infant mortality in 2000.<sup>1</sup> Nearly 58% of this population was rural, or around 235 million people. Overall, approximately 28% of the rural coastal population in 2000 was in areas with high rates of infant mortality. In 2000, around 340 million coastal people were also in locations with malnourished children. Around 61%, or 206 million of this population, lived in rural coastal areas. They accounted for approximately one-quarter of the rural coastal population in developing countries.

However, poverty, as proxied by infant mortality and malnutrition, among rural coastal populations in developing countries varied considerably by income level (see Table 3). Most of the rural coastal populations that lived in areas with high infant mortality and malnourished children in 2000 were in low- and lower-middle-income countries. The share (%) of rural coastal population in poverty also declined with income level. For example, 67% of the rural coastal population in low-income countries lived in areas with high infant mortality, compared to 28% in lower-middle-income and 8% in upper-middle-income countries. Similarly, 37% of the rural coastal population in low-income countries was in areas with malnourished children, 30% in lower-middle-income countries, and 6% in upper-middle-income countries.

> 1 Although child malnutrition is directly association with poverty, it is necessary to designate a threshold for infant mortality, above which the number deaths of infants per 1,000 live births is associated with conditions of poverty. As indicated in Table 3, the threshold used here is 50 or more deaths.   Although somewhat conservative, this threshold is consistent with other studies that use the CIESN globally gridded data set of infant mortality to designate areas with different degrees of poverty.  For example, in his spatial analysis of poverty in areas surrounding national parks in developing countries, de Sherbinin (2008) considers areas with infant mortality rates < 15 deaths per 1,000 live births to be not poor, in the range of 15‐32 deaths to be moderately poor, 32‐65 to be poor, 65‐100 to be very poor, and > 100 to be extremely poor.

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