By GEMNATION
Male-headed households are somewhat poorer than female-headed households, however, divorced or widowed male-headed households are much less poor than divorced widowed female headed households according to latest Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency report.
The 2017/2019 min Poverty, Income, Consumptions and Expenditure Survey presented Tuesday in Harare revealed that poverty was highest among communal farmers and lowest among those who rely on salaries and wages
Some results of the PICES 2017 presented by Mr Grown Chirongwe, the Manager Finance Statistics Department show that households headed by own-account workers were most likely to be affected by high poverty.
“Casual or temporary employees suffered from high poverty. Households headed by a permanent paid employee or by an employer had the lowest likelihood of being poor.
“In urban areas, poverty was highest among households that depended mostly on own business. It was lowest among those rely on salaries and wages,” he said.
Extreme poverty headcount is highest in Mashonaland Central Province with 49.5 percent followed by Matabeleland North province with 45.1 percent while the lowest is found in Bulawayo (1 percent) and Harare Province (5.2 percent).
Manicaland has the highest proportion of the extreme poor (16.4 percent of all the extreme poor live there), followed by Masvingo (13.3 percent).
Only about 10 percent of Zimbabwe’s extreme poor households are found in the major cities, Harare and Bulawayo.
The increase in extreme poverty is entirely driven by worsening conditions in rural areas
Rural extreme poverty headcount rose from 30.4 in 2011/12 to 40.9 percent in 2017
Extreme poverty rates among the urban population are low and continue to drop: from 5.6 percent to 4.4 percent.
Prevalence, depth, and severity of rural poverty are much higher than those of urban poverty.
“85 percent of households below the upper poverty line live in rural areas.
“Between 2011 and 2017 extreme poverty rose while general poverty dropped marginally Two poverty lines:
“Food poverty line: US$ 31.2 per person per month. Upper poverty line: US$70.4 per person per month,” the report said.
The proportion of households that are below the upper poverty line dropped somewhat to 61 percent in 2017 from 63 percent in 2011/12.
The proportion of the population that is below the upper poverty line dropped to 70.5 percent in 2017 from 72.3 percent in 2011/12.
However, the extreme poverty headcount rose from 22.5 percent to 29.3 percent.
