What are poverty maps?

Poverty maps are spatial representations of poverty assessments. The assessment information comes from a variety of sources and can be presented at various levels (global, national and local). Indicators of income poverty (such as GDP per capita or daily subsistence levels), or of well-being (such as life expectancy, child mortality, or literacy) are most frequently used in poverty maps, and are derived from national census data or household surveys. Sometimes various indicators are combined to give an index of poverty or human development (such as the Human Development Index, a composite of life expectancy, literacy and income).

As an example, in the World Bank Report: Using disaggregated poverty maps to plan sectoral investments(PDF) by combining survey and census data to create poverty maps to show where needs are the greatest, policymakers can focus scarce resources.

Why Use Poverty Maps?

Poverty maps also allow easy comparison of indicators of poverty or well being with data from other assessments, such as access to infrastructure or services, availability and condition of natural resources, and distribution of transport and communications facilities. Specifically;

• Poverty maps can quickly provide information on the spatial distribution of poverty that in turn proves the targeting of intervention or development projects.
• GIS based poverty analysis makes it easier to integrate poverty data from various sources
• Geo-referenced information can free analysis from the restrictions of fixed geographical boundaries. For instance, data can be converted from administrative to ecological boundaries which are often more meaningful in a natural resources management context.
• Mapped information on the levels and distribution of poverty make the results of analysis more easily understandable to a non-specialist audience.

This greatly assists in the targeting and implementation of development projects, and the communication of information to a wide range of stakeholders, as shown in Where Are the Poor?, a review of 14 case studies of applying poverty maps to development processes.