Shared Prosperity: Monitoring Inclusive Growth

Shared prosperity measures the extent to which economic growth is inclusive by focusing on household consumption or income growth among the poorest population rather than on growth in the average. It is defined as the annualized growth rate in the average consumption or income per capita of the poorest 40 percent (the bottom 40) of the population in a country. Promoting shared prosperity is one of the goals of the World Bank Group (together with eradicating extreme poverty).

Out of 88 economies for which data was available for 2013-2018, 73 had positive shared prosperity, meaning that the incomes of the poorest 40 percent of the population increased. 53 countries had a positive shared prosperity premium, meaning that the poorest 40 percent grew at a faster rate than the whole population, so growth benefited the poorest more than the entire population.

Average global shared prosperity (growth in the incomes of the poorest 40 percent) was 2.8 percent for 2013-2018. But the gains are uneven: Shared prosperity and shared prosperity premiums are lower on average in fragile and low-income economies than in middle-income economies. Moreover, the global COVID-19 pandemic is likely to reduce shared prosperity and the shared prosperity premium. The Poverty and Shared Prosperity report 2020 includes a detailed analysis of the 2012-2017 shared prosperity data.

Latest shared prosperity data

The latest edition of the Global Database of Shared Prosperity (GDSP) includes the most recent figures on annualized consumption or income growth of the poorest 40 percent of the distribution in 88 countries, which are roughly comparable in terms of time period and interval.

The GDSP is updated once a year in March (with a possibility of a smaller update in September of some years) and is now in its 8^th Edition. This edition is anchored to circa 2013-2018, reflecting the latest available data.

Download the latest shared prosperity data

(available in .pdf and .xlsx).

Download historical shared prosperity data

All historical spells

Last Updated: Mar 31, 2021

Methodology and Usage

The number of economies that can be included in the GDSP depends on the availability of at least two rounds of comparable household surveys. Of the 168 economies with data available for the global poverty measures reported in the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform, 88 economies have shared prosperity indicators. This is because, while only one household survey is needed to compute the poverty headcount in a given survey-year, two comparable household surveys are needed to compute the growth rate in consumption or income used for the shared prosperity indicator. These data challenges imply that shared prosperity cannot be measured in some of the most deprived economies (a detailed discussion is included here).

Survey data are selected with the aim (i) to match the time periods as closely as possible across all countries, while including the most recent data; and (ii) to ensure the widest possible coverage of countries, across regions and income levels. Comparability is assessed according to the database available here.

Learn more about how the 8^th Edition of the GDSP was constructed, in this short What’s New document. More details on the methodology of the GDSP in general are available here.

The Team

The Global Database on Shared Prosperity was created by the Global Poverty Working Group (GPWG), an interdisciplinary technical working group established to improve the quality and frequency of poverty and inequality data, comprising members from the Poverty and Equity Global Practice and the Development Economics Vice Presidency Data Group (DECDG) and Research Group (DECRG). 

Citation and Attribution:

When using Shared Prosperity data, please cite as: Global Database of Shared Prosperity (8th edition, circa 2013–18), World Bank, Washington, DC. 2021. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/brief/global-database -of-shared-prosperity

Data Source

The World Bank’s Shared Prosperity data is calculated using the Global Monitoring Database (GMD). The Global Monitoring Database (GMD) is the World Bank’s repository of multitopic income and expenditure household surveys used to monitor global poverty and shared prosperity. The household survey data are typically collected by national statistical offices in each country, and then compiled, processed, and harmonized. The process is coordinated by the Data for Goals (D4G) team and supported by the six regional statistics teams in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice. The Development Data Group contributes historical data (before the 1990s) and recent survey data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). Selected variables have been harmonized to the extent possible such that levels and trends in poverty and other key sociodemographic attributes can be reasonably compared across and within countries over time. The GMD’s harmonized microdata are used in the global poverty measures reported in the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform, the World Bank’s Multidimensional Poverty Measure, and the Global Database of Shared Prosperity.

Contacts

Database and Methodology:

Data for Goals (D4G) at data4goals@worldbank.org

Media inquiries:

Elizabeth Howton, Communications Lead at ehowton@worldbankgroup.org