Poverty in Tonga

Building on the Consensual Approach, the National Statistics Office developed Tonga’s multidimensional poverty measure to create a more valid and nuanced picture of poverty in Tonga.

The poor are those who experience both low income and are also materially and socially deprived.

Income is measured at the household level -reflecting the sharing of resources among household members – and takes into account both monetary (e.g. wages) and non-monetary sources (e.g. self-production).

Deprivation is captured through an index of socially perceived necessities -items and activities that the majority of people in Tonga consider that no-one should go without-.

Different indices are used for children and adults to acknowledge the specific needs of children. The income poverty line is set at TOP$944 per month for children,  and TOP$970 per month for adults. According to this national definition, in Tonga, 27% of the population are poor: they are deprived and live in a low-income household. Child poverty rates are higher than adult poverty rates, with 33% of children living in poverty compared to 23% of adults, that’s one in three children compared to almost one in four adults.