Belgium · Poverty at National Lines · % of population

## What this measures

The share of people in Belgium living below the poverty line the country itself sets: the official national poverty rate and the measure for UN Sustainable Development Goal indicator 1.2.1. Percent of population, in years with a household survey.

## Why it matters

It is the poverty number a government is held to at home, so it moves politics and social spending more than the international line does. In middle-income countries it catches hardship that the $3.00-a-day line misses.

## How to read it

Lower is better. Read it against its own history only: each country draws its own line, so levels cannot be compared across countries.

## What it does not say

National lines differ widely and change when a statistics office revises its method, which can break the series; a jump is sometimes a new line, not a change in poverty. Points exist only for survey years. Several high-income countries do not report a national rate here.

## Source

World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform, compiled from official national sources, via World Development Indicators, indicator `SI.POV.NAHC`. Licence per the World Bank's indicator metadata: CC BY 4.0. Palanor rewrites the full history each week (/api/cron/sovereign-sync), so revisions carry through.