Income share of the poorest 20% — all countries

Income share of the poorest 20% — Sri Lanka

Income share of the poorest 20% in Sri Lanka in 2019 — 7.4%. Ranked 37 in the world out of 78. Since 1985, the indicator has fallen by 0.9 pp.

2019 7.4% +0.3 pp vs 2016
World rank 37of 78
Period maximum 8.7%1990
Period minimum 7%2002

Trend over time

1985–2019 · % of income

Income share of the poorest 20% — Sri Lanka, 1985–201977.588.5919851989199319972001200520092013201720191985: 8.3%1990: 8.7%1995: 8%2002: 7%2006: 7%2009: 7.8%2012: 7.3%2016: 7.1%2019: 7.4%
Change over the period: −0.9 pp Annual average: -0.03 pp
Income share of the poorest 20% — Sri Lanka, by year Sri Lanka All countries CSV XLSX
Year % Change, pp
2019 7.4
2016 7.1
2012 7.3
2009 7.8
2006 7
2002 7
1995 8
1990 8.7
1985 8.3

Southern Asia, 2019

The same indicator for neighboring countries — with links to their pages

About the indicator

The share of total income or consumption that goes to the poorest twenty percent of the population. Under complete equality it would be twenty percent; in the most equal countries it comes to about nine, in the most unequal to about three. The indicator reads more plainly than the Gini index: instead of collapsing the whole distribution into a single number, it says outright how much goes to those who get the least.

Important: There are no aggregates for country groups: the top and bottom quintiles of a group are not a union of national quintiles, and they cannot be computed from country shares. The same reason as with the Gini index.

Source: World Development Indicators (World Bank), license CC BY 4.0.