Poverty numbers: More should be learned before jumping into quick interpretations

Amazing poverty numbers

Sri Lanka’s official data agency, the Department of Census and Statistics or popularly known as DCS, has made the announcement that the country’s poverty level has declined drastically between 1995 and 2010.

According to the DCS, the number of people in poverty as a percentage of Sri Lanka’s total population has declined by leaps and bounds from 28.8% in 1995-96 to 22.7% in 2002 to 15.2% in 2006-07 and further to a record level of 8.9% in 2009-10 (available at http://www.statistics.gov.lk/poverty/PovertyIndicators2009_10.pdf ).