Tonga 35 6 40 38 30 5 36 25 34 4 32 20 3 30 15 28 2 26 10 24 5 1 22 0 0 20 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 Poverty International Poverty Line Lower Middle IC Line GDP per capita rate (Thousand) (%) Upper Middle IC Line National Poverty Line GDP per capita (US$2011 PPP) KEY INDICATORS (distribution among groups) International Poverty Line (%) Relative Group (%) Year Poor Non-Poor Bottom 40 Top 60 Urban population 3 97 41 59 2009 Rural population 1 99 40 60 2009 Males 1 99 41 59 2009 Females 1 99 40 60 2009 0 to 14 years old 1 99 48 52 2009 15 to 64 years old 1 99 36 64 2009 65 and older 0 100 26 74 2009 Without education (age 16 and older) 0 100 24 76 2009 Primary education (age 16 and older) 1 99 40 60 2009 Secondary education (age 16 and older) 1 99 35 65 2009 Tertiary/post-secondary education (age 16 and older) 0 100 13 87 2009 International measures of poverty aim to facilitate the meaningful comparison of poverty rates across countries. They are ideally derived using consistent methodology (e.g., in the definition of the consumption aggregate and the absolute level of the poverty line) to the extent that this is possible with the available data. To this end, the World Bank publishes estimates of poverty according to three different international poverty lines, 2011 PPP, per person per day: $1.90, $3.20, and $5.50. Tonga’s national poverty statistics from 2009 (as reported for Millennium Development Goal tracking purposes) used a cost of basic needs approach to establish a welfare benchmark for the poverty line. A single food poverty line was used, but three separate non-food components were calculated for Nuku’alofa, the Rest of Tongatapu, and Other Islands, respectively. For the international poverty statistics, the three resulting regional poverty lines are used to adjust nominal values of the welfare aggregate to account for spatial differences in the cost of living. Both Tonga’s national and international poverty statistics assess welfare needs on a per capita basis (rather than applying an adult equivalence scale). The numbers presented in this brief are based on the EAPPOV database. EAPPOV is a database of socio-economic statistics constructed using microdata from household surveys in the East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region and is managed by the East Asia & Pacific Team for Statistical Development (EAPTSD). As of April 2017, the collection includes 19 countries and 78 surveys. Harmonized surveys in the EAPPOV database are compiled into 4 modules following Global Monitoring Database (GMD) Harmonization guidelines. A subset of the harmonized variables form the basis of the GMD collection, including the welfare aggregate which is used for Global Poverty Monitoring. Terms of use of the data adhere to agreements with the original data producers.