Page updated on 31/01/2009

In 1999 it was estimated that 57 percent of the population were below the US$1 per day poverty line. The families in poverty do not have enough income to provide the barest minimum of food, shelter, and clothing.

Most of those in poverty are rural families relying on small-scale family farms for their livelihoods, and unable to increase their incomes as they are unable to afford investments in machinery, fertilisers, insecticides, and improved seeds that would boost their output.

The UNs Human Development Index, which combines income, health, and education indicators, places Gambia at 161 out of 174 countries in 1998, putting Gambia firmly in the low development category.

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