Jordan

Jordan’s location neighboring Israel, the West Bank, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia gives this country of around 6.3 million people particular geostrategic importance for regional and global stability. Jordan has made great strides in reducing poverty (extreme $1-a-day poverty was reduced from 6.6 percent of the population in 1992 to less than 1 percent in 2008), as well as achieving gender equity in literacy and primary and secondary education. The domestic unrest of the region following the Arab Spring in late 2010 highlighted the importance of economic development and employment for youth; with the 15- to 24-year-old age group constituting around 19.8 percent of the population, this is especially true for Jordan.

The national poverty line is constructed using per capita household expenditures of food and ...