10 Key Findings from the Zambia Poverty and Equity Assessment

This infographic shares key finding from the Zambia Poverty and Equity Assessment: Turning Things Around After a Lost Decade.

Despite relatively higher GDP per capita, 70.7% of the population lives on less than $3 a day in 2022, revealing that past economic growth has failed to deliver meaningful poverty reduction. Poverty has become increasingly entrenched over time, driven largely by structural factors, with 80% of the poor residing in rural areas where more than three out of four households struggle below the poverty line. Small-scale agriculture keeps most rural households at subsistence levels, though not all rural areas experienced rising poverty and agriculture can still offer pathways out of poverty when conditions are favorable. Urban poverty presents a different picture, with notable disparities between Lusaka and other urban centers, where the higher incidence of poverty observed in 2022 appears to be structural rather than temporary.