Resource information
This report identifies the key drivers
of rapid poverty reduction in Bhutan over the recent years,
explaining why some dzongkhags are stuck in poverty or
reducing poverty is not significant while others prospered,
and whether female headed households have a harder time
reducing poverty. The exercise draws mainly on data from the
two rounds of Bhutan Living Standards Survey (2007 and 2012)
supplemented with focus group discussions carried out for
the report in select dzongkhags. Bhutan's poverty
reduction has been rapid, broad-based, and inclusive.
Between 2007 and 2012, the percentage of consumption poor
halved to 12 percent. Bhutan has nearly ended extreme
poverty within the living memory of a generation extreme
poverty touched a low of two percent in 2012. Broader
multidimensional poverty indices, that include education and
health outcomes besides standards of living, also indicate a
steep decline in the percentage of deprived population by
two-thirds, from about 25 percent to 12.7 percent. Growth in
Bhutan helped the previously landless to escape poverty.
Education appears to be the most important route by far to
escape poverty. This report is a complement to the earlier
Poverty Analysis Report 2012 which was prepared with the
World Bank's technical support.
