Bhutan

Bhutan is a lower-middle income country in south Asia. The country is a pioneer in engaging with multidimensional notions of poverty in measurement and policy. Bhutan is primarily a Buddhist nation and was inhabited by 720,679 people in 2012. The majority of its population, 69 percent as of 2005, live in rural areas. Bhutan has experienced remarkable gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth since 2008, which has been accompanied by a decrease in the proportion of [Page 122]the population living below the $1.25 a day poverty line; in 2012, 1.7 percent of the population lived below the poverty line. Bhutan mapped out consumption-based poverty in 2003, 2007, and 2012, using the Bhutan Living Standard Survey (BLSS). The national poverty line of Bhutan, based on ...