Poverty decreased in East Timor, but inequality increased

Apeople living in monetary poverty in East Timor decreased from 48.4% in 2014 to 37% in 2024, but economic inequality increased, according to the country’s Life Standards Survey Summary Report.

“ In the national poverty line, which represents the cost of meeting basic needs in food, housing and other non-food goods in Timor-Leste, the proportion of Timorese living in poverty is 37.0% in 2024”, can be read in the report, prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and the Ministry of Finance, and published on Tuesday.

The report, based on 7,424 surveys of households throughout the country, points out that more than half a million of the country’s 1.4 million inhabitants “continue poor”.

At national level there are 522,927 poor, 448,556 of which in rural areas.

Despite the reduction in poverty, surveys show that “unequality has increased in East Timor over the past decade”, according to the statistical measure of economic inequality, ranging from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality).

In 2024, East Timor recorded a coefficient of 0.36 against 0.31 registered in 2014.

“ This represents an increase of 0.05 points, showing a worsening of the levels of economic inequality in the country over the last decade”, can be read in the document.

The survey also measured the depth of poverty in East Timor in 2024 at 10.2%.

“ This means that a poor person lives on average with a level of consumption 10.2% below the national poverty line. In practical terms, the average consumption deficit corresponds to about USD 0.23 per person per day, compared to the national poverty line of USD 2.31 per day,” explains the document.