leaving rural areas and settling in urban centers, essentially in the capital Amman. Indeed the 7.8 percentage points decline in the share of rural poor out of the total poor<sup>19</sup> was also accompanied by a decline in the share of rural residents albeit at a slower rate<sup>20</sup> (also see Table 2 for distribution of population).

|||||**Tab**|**le 2: Po**|**verty by G**|**eographic**|**Regions**||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Poverty**|**Headcount**|**Rate (P1)**|**Distribut**|**ion of the**|**Poor (P2)**|**Distributi**|**on of Popu **|**lation (P3)**|**P1**|**change**|**P2**|**change**|**P3**|**change**|
|**Poverty Line = JD813.7**|**2002**|**2010**|**change**|**2002**|**2010**|**change**|**2002**|**2010**|**change**|**2008**|**(08-10)**|**2008**|**(08-10)**|**2008**|**(08-10)**|
|Urban|29.4|14.4|-15.1|71.7|79.5|7.9|77.8|82.6|4.8|17.1|-2.8|72.6|6.9|81.7|-3.9|
|Rural|40.8|17.6|-23.2|28.3|20.5|-7.9|22.2|17.4|-4.8<br>0.0|28.9|-11.3|27.4|-6.9|18.3|3.9|
|Amman|21.6|11.7|-9.8|25.4|30.4|5.0|37.7|38.6|0.9|14.6|-2.9|30.0|0.4|39.6|-1.9|
|Balqa|40.8|22.5|-18.3|9.0|10.1|1.1|7.1|6.7|-0.4|25.7|-3.2|8.0|2.1|6.0|1.1|
|Zarqa|46.1|15.2|-31.0|21.6|15.2|-6.4|14.9|14.9|0.0|18.2|-3.1|13.0|2.2|13.8|1.2|
|Madaba|23.7|13.7|-10.0|1.8|2.3|0.5|2.5|2.5|0.0|19.9|-6.1|2.4|-0.1|2.3|0.2|
|Irbid|32.8|15.4|-17.4|18.8|18.5|-0.2|18.3|17.9|-0.4|21.3|-5.9|20.4|-1.9|18.5|-0.2|
|Mafraq|49.9|20.0|-29.8|6.7|6.3|-0.4|4.3|4.7|0.4|36.4|-16.4|9.3|-3.0|4.9|-0.6|
|Jarash|42.6|6.8|-35.8|4.1|1.3|-2.8|3.1|2.9|-0.2|22.5|-15.7|3.5|-2.2|3.0|0.1|
|Ajlun|31.6|26.6|-5.0|2.4|4.3|2.0|2.4|2.4|0.0|17.4|9.2|2.1|2.3|2.3|0.1|
|Karak|27.6|13.9|-13.8|3.5|3.6|0.1|4.0|3.9|-0.1|23.0|-9.1|5.1|-1.5|4.3|-0.3|
|Tafiela|30.5|17.8|-12.7|1.5|1.6|0.1|1.5|1.3|-0.2|26.5|-8.7|1.9|-0.3|1.4|0.1|
|Ma'an|45.4|26.6|-18.8|3.0|3.4|0.4|2.1|1.9|-0.2|31.0|-4.4|3.0|0.4|1.8|0.3|
|Aqaba|34.0|19.7|-14.3|2.2|3.0|0.8|2.0|2.2|0.2|12.8|6.9|1.4|1.5|2.2|-0.1|
|Kingdom<br>Source: World Bank Staff Calc|32.0<br>ulations usin|14.9<br>g Official Ho|-17.1<br>usehold Incom|100.0<br>e and Expendi|100.0<br>ture Surveys|0.0<br>|100.0|100.0|0.0|19.3|-4.4|100.0|0.0|100.0|0.0|

Table 2 reveals a regional pattern for poverty changes. All governorates witnessed a strong and commendable decline in poverty in the past decade; the Northern governorates were the best performers, while the capital Amman performed the worst. To a large extent, the poverty profile across governorates replicates the results highlighted earlier when discussing the regional dimension of households’ welfare growth. Northern and North-Eastern governorates have witnessed larger drops in poverty rates in the past decade. In particular, Irbid and Zarqa, second and third in terms of population size respectively, registered substantial declines in poverty headcount rates by 17.4 and 30.9 percentage points, and are therefore the largest contributors to the overall poverty drop in the Kingdom. On the other hand, the poverty rate in Amman registered the slowest decline among all the governorates in Jordan<sup>21</sup> with only 9.9 percentage

> 19 Which occurred between 2002 and 2010.

> 20 The share of rural residents out of total population dropped by 4.8 percentage points. 21 Except for the governorate of Ajlun.

9