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. Because this indicator monitors the progress of the bottom 40 and how the less well-off can benefit from economic growth, it is relevant even in higher-income countries, where extreme poverty is much lower. The monitoring of this goal is reported in the semi-annual update of the Global Database of Shared Prosperity.^[1]

Latest Shared Prosperity data

The October 2022 update of the Global Database of Shared Prosperity (GDSP) is the 10th edition since its launch. This new edition revises the figures released in April 2022 to apply the new international poverty line of $2.15 per person per day in 2017 PPP. Indicator coverage is also revised to include 81 of the world’s economies in 2019, which are roughly comparable in terms for circa 2014-2019.

Learn more about the 10th 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

_{[1] The GDSP is updated in line with the updates to the poverty estimates. A major update to the GDSP happens around March of every year with a possibility of a smaller update in September on some years.}

Last Updated: Oct 14, 2022

Methodology and Usage

The number of economies^[1] included in the GDSP depends on the availability of household surveys in the World Bank’s Global Monitoring Database, October 2022.^[2] Despite its relevance, shared prosperity is more challenging to monitor than global poverty. 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 period in all economies. These data challenges imply that shared prosperity cannot be measured in some of the most deprived economies (a detailed discussion is included here). Given the restrictions mentioned, GDSP coverage can vary between updates (Table 1).^[3] The 10th edition of the GDSP covers 81 economies across all regions.

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

_{Source: World Bank compilation based on data of GDSP (Global Database of Shared Prosperity), World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022 http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/brief/global-database-of-shared-prosperity}

_{Note: AM=Annual meetings in October; SM=Spring meetings in April. EAP = East Asia and Pacific; ECA = Europe and Central Asia; LAC = Latin America and Caribbean; MNA = Middle East and North Africa; OHI=Other High-Income countries; SAR = South Asia; SSA = Sub-Saharan Africa.}

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 169 countries have an international poverty estimate in the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP), significantly fewer have a shared prosperity estimate due to the stricter data requirements referenced above.

Overall, the GDSP now includes coverage for approximately 5.7 billion people, or 74 percent of the world’s population in 2019. However, for regions outside of Europe and Central Asia, the share of countries with available shared prosperity indicators is low relative to the total number of countries in each region (Table 2).

Table 2. Global Database of Shared Prosperity, 10th edition, circa 2014-2019

_{Sources: 10th edition of the GDSP Global Database of Shared Prosperity); World Development Indicators (WDI); http://data.worldbank.org/products/wdi}

_{Note: Population data are from 2019. The list of IDA countries and economies in fragile and conflict-affected situations is from fiscal year (FY) 2022. Venezuela is not included in the breakdown by income group, because its income group classification for FY22 is pending. Number of economies with poverty rate counts economies that reported poverty estimates in 2012 or later. SP = shared prosperity indicator. Averages across economies are simple averages, not population weighted.}

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 Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report 2022 (World Bank, 2022) contains a separate discussion of trends for 13 countries with data collected in 2020 to provide an estimate of the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on shared prosperity. 

_{[1] The term country, used interchangeably with economy, does not imply political independence but refers to any territory for which authorities report separate social or economic statistics.}

_{[2] 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.}

_{[3] The largest number of economies covered was in the fourth edition in 2017 (which was used in World Bank, 2020), with 93 economies}

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 (10th 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 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 Global Poverty & Inequality Data Team (GPID) in the Development Economics Data Group (DECDG) also contributed historical data from before 1990 and recent survey data from Luxemburg Income Studies (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 currently used in the Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP), the World Bank’s Multidimensional Poverty Measure (WB MPM), the Global Database of Shared Prosperity (GDSP), and Poverty and Shared Prosperity Reports. Additional information on the latest country data can be found in see Castaneda et al., 2022.

Contacts

Database and Methodology:

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

Media inquiries:

Paul Clare, Senior External Affairs Officer at pclare@worldbank.org