households will be with regards to the IPL (extreme poverty). As will be discussed in more detail in Section 2 below, all persons in poor households are considered to be poor and all persons in non‐poor households are considered to be to be non‐poor. This assumes that all household members enjoy the same standard of living, which, as discussed below, may understate the gender dimensions of poverty.

Gender Profiles of the Poor Globally, the number of people living on less than $1.90 a day (below the International Poverty Line) is 654.9 million, which corresponds to 12.5 percent of the total population included in our GMD sample. Table 1 shows that nearly half of the poor live in Sub‐Saharan Africa (51.3 percent or 302.7 million), followed closely by South Asia (251.6 million). Slightly more than half of the poor are women (330 million), and men account for 49.7 percent of the poor (325 million). Poverty rates for females and males are similar (12.8 and 12.3 percent, respectively). These rates vary across regions, but gender differences are only statistically significant in South Asia, where female poverty rates are 15.9 percent, compared to 14.7 percent for males. Worldwide, this translates to 104 women living in poor households for every 100 men. In South Asia, 109 women live in poor households for every 100 men<sup>19</sup> .

Household‐level information can provide relevant insights when it comes to the gender profiles of the poor. Although, in the aggregate, female and male poverty rates are very similar, as shown in the tables below<sup>20</sup> , they mask variations according to individual characteristics, which are helpful to start developing a more disaggregated understanding of potential differences between men and women in relation to poverty.

_Table 1. Proportion (and number) of poor population, poverty rates, and distribution of the poor by sex and region. 1.a. Population living in poverty by sex_

||Number of<br>poor<br>(millions)|% poor of<br>population|Female<br>poverty<br>rate|Male<br>poverty<br>rate|Female<br>share of<br>poor|Male<br>share of<br>poor|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|East Asia and Pacific|67.6|3.6|3.6|3.6|48.8|51.2|
|Europe and Central Asia|3.3|0.8|0.8|0.8|51.6|48.4|
|Latin America and Caribbean|29.4|5.3|5.5|5.2|51.8|48.2|
|Middle East and North Africa|0.3|1.9|2.0|1.9|50.7|49.3|
|South Asia|251.6|15.3|15.9|14.7|50.7|49.3|
|Sub‐Saharan Africa|302.7|43.2|43.4|42.9|50.2|49.8|
|Total|654.9|12.5|12.8|12.3|50.3|49.7|

> 19 These numbers refer to the weighted population ratio in the GMD dataset. As a reference, the population ratio (males per 100 females) was estimated at 101.5 for 2015, variating from 103.6 for lower‐middle income countries, to 98.8 for low‐income countries. The ratio for South Asia was estimated at 106.2 (Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, custom data acquired via website)

> 20 As noted earlier, the analysis assumes that all persons living in poor households are poor and all persons in non‐poor households are non‐poor. Therefore, female and male poverty rates are defined as the percentage of women and men who live in poor households.

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