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 total growth. 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.

Latest Shared Prosperity data

The monitoring of this goal is reported in the semi-annual update of the Global Database of Shared Prosperity.1 

The April 2022 update of the Global Database of Shared Prosperity (GDSP) is the 9th edition since its launch. This edition includes the most recent figures on annualized consumption or income growth of the poorest 40 percent in 80 countries, which are roughly comparable in terms for circa 2014-2019. The GDSP is updated once a year around March/April, with the possibility of a smaller update in September some years. 

Learn more about the 9th Edition of the GDSP in this What’s New  brief.

Download the latest shared prosperity data

(available in .pdf and .xlsx).

Download historical shared prosperity data

All historical spells

Last Updated: Apr 30, 2022

Methodology and Usage

The number of economies² included in the GDSP depends on the availability of household surveys. Whereas one household survey is needed to compute poverty, two comparable household surveys are needed to compute shared prosperity. Moreover, these surveys must be conducted around the same years to ensure that shared prosperity can be measured for roughly the same time-period in all economies. 

Given the restrictions mentioned, the GDSP coverage can vary between updates (Table 1).³ The 9th edition of the GDSP covers 80 economies across all regions. In more developed economies, survey coverage has been relatively stable. However, in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the number of economies included are nearly halved from 8 in the 8th edition to 5 in the current edition, after reaching as many as 15 in previous editions. These data challenges imply that shared prosperity cannot be measured in some of the most deprived economies (a detailed discussion is included here).

Table 1. Country coverage across editions of the GDSP, by region

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.

Although 168 countries have an international poverty estimate in the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP), significantly fewer have a shared prosperity estimate because of stricter data requirements for the reasons discussed. Shared prosperity, and the shared prosperity premium can only be calculated for 80 of 218 economies, corresponding to 57 percent of the world’s population, and 37 percent of the world’s economies. See table 2.

Table 2. Global Database of Shared Prosperity, 9th Edition, Data Coverage 

Note: SP = shared prosperity indicator. Averages across economies are simple averages, not population weighted. Population reference year 2018.  _{Sources: 9th edition of the GDSP Global Database of Shared Prosperity); PovcalNet, http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/; World Development Indicators (WDI); http://data.worldbank.org/products/wdi}

Comparisons across regions should be made with caution. There is a wide range of periods represented in circa 2014–19 shared prosperity indicators; for example, growth is measured from 2012-17 for Egypt but 2016–20 for Mexico and Argentina. In addition, the LAC and ECA countries that have 2020 data are presenting shared prosperity indicators that incorporate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and corresponding policy response. These countries would require their own separate analysis given the extent of the shock to incomes in 2020.

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 (9th edition, circa 2014–19), World Bank, Washington, DC. 2022. 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