Poverty depth and severity
Poverty-gap and squared-gap indices for urban, rural and estate sectors.
- Records
- 32
- Vintage
- 2026 edition; observation years vary by table
- Last checked
- 16 October 2026
- Published by
- GovernmentDepartment of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka
What this dataset contains
DCS Household Income and Expenditure Survey poverty-gap and squared-gap indices for 2012/13, 2016 and 2019, nationally and by urban, rural and estate sector. The older line is based on HIES 2002 and adjusted with CCPI. The updated line is based on HIES 2012/13 and adjusted with NCPI for 2019. Both line definitions are retained as separate observations.
How it is used here
Compare sectors using the updated poverty line in 2019. The older-line observations allow historical comparisons within that definition.
What it cannot tell you
These are historical survey indices ending in 2019, not current poverty estimates. The older and updated poverty lines cannot be joined into one unchanged series. Poverty-gap and squared-gap indices measure different aspects of poverty and must not be added together. The source prints the 2019 estate-sector old-line poverty gap as 1,2; its decimal comma was reviewed as 1.2, with the original token retained.