Poverty in Lebanon tripled over a decade, World Bank says

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The World Bank says poverty in Lebanon has tripled over the course of a decade during which the small Mediterranean country slid into a protracted financial crisis

BEIRUT — Poverty in Lebanon tripled over the course of a decade during which the small Mediterranean country slid into a protracted financial crisis, the World Bank said Thursday.

The percentage of people in Lebanon living below the poverty line rose from 12% in 2012 to 44% in 2022, the bank said in a report based on surveys conducted in five of the country's eight governorates.

The data provided the most detailed snapshot to date on the economic circumstances of the country's population since the crisis that began in late 2019, although World Bank officials acknowledged it was incomplete as surveyors were not given access to three governates in the south and east of the country.

The findings showed stark differences in poverty levels between different areas of the country and between Lebanese citizens and the country's large population of Syrian refugees.

In the Beirut governate, in contrast to the rest of the country, poverty actually declined from 4% to 2% of the population during the decade surveyed, while in the largely neglected Akkar region in the north, the rate increased from 22% to 62%.

Among Lebanese surveyed, the poverty rate in 2022 was 33%, while among Syrians it reached 87%. While the survey found an increase in the percentage of Lebanese citizens working in unskilled jobs like agriculture and construction, it found that most Lebanese still work in skilled jobs while the majority of Syrians do unskilled labor.

The report also measured “multidimensional poverty,” which takes into account access to services like electricity and education as well