Poverty level in Yemen

A report by the Central Bureau for Statistics in Yemen said that the number of families who live under the food poverty line has reached 12.9% in the cities and 18.8% in the rural areas.

The report which was released in 1998, a copy of which was sent to the UNDP this week, said the poverty rate would be greater in Yemen if the report would have taken into consideration the people who do not have housing, health and education services, then the poverty line will reach 25.3% in the cities and 33.4% in the rural areas.

At the beginning of this month, Yemeni Minister of Planning and Development Ahmad Muhammad Soufan said the number of the population in Yemen reached 17.58 million. This number is expected to double during the next 20 years.