Poverty in the rural areas of Fiji stands at 41.5 percent, based on the 2019-20 Household Income and Expenditure Survey.

In the urban areas, it was at 20.4 percent, with 62.2 percent of the poor are living in rural areas.

29.9 percent of Fijians, or about 258,000 individuals in 45,724 households, lived under the Basic Needs Poverty Line (BNPL) of $41.91 per adult equivalent per week.

192,977 i-Taukei were living in poverty, while, 58,933, were Indo-Fijians and others made up 6143.

134,060 males and 123, 992 females were in absolute poverty.

Aside from geographic dispersion, poverty also varied by education and labor market characteristics of the household.

Households whose head had higher levels of education had lower poverty rates, although the returns to education were much lower in rural areas than in urban areas.

Poverty rates were also lowest among households whose heads were employers or involved in salaried work, particularly outside of the agriculture industry.

Also in 2019-20, three out of every ten adults and 30 percent of children were multidimensionally poor, which means they lived on low incomes and were deprived of essential things that they needed.