Measuring Poverty with Big Data

Partnering with Baidu to provide big data, the report brings a measure called the Living Standard Dimension of the Human Development Index that addresses the multi-faceted and complex nature of poverty by combining eight indicators to evaluate the provision of services of the 2,284 counties across the country. The eight indicators include: access to piped water, access to sanitary toilets, access to indoor kitchens, access to living services, access to financial services, access to roads, mobile internet coverage, and nighttime light density.

The Living Standards Index serves to support income-based measures of poverty and hopefully become a supplementary tool to assist policy makers and development practitioners. The Index ranks Zhejiang and Jiangsu in first and second place respectively, followed by Beijing and Shanghai. In addition, Ningxia ranks 11th and is the only autonomous region to have an index value that exceeds the country average.