There are approximately 300 million Indigenous Peoples worldwide - nearly 80 percent of them living in Asia. Although they make up roughly 4. 5 percent of the global population Indigenous Peoples account for about 10 percent of the world’s poor. They suffer from higher poverty, lower education, and a greater incidence of disease and discrimination than other groups. This is the main finding of the report Indigenous Peoples, Poverty, and Development, a study that offers a "global snapshot" of a set of indicators for Indigenous Peoples vis-à-vis national demographic averages. The study also considers in detail how social conditions have evolved in seven countries around the world (Central African Republic, China, Congo, Gabon, India, Laos and Vietnam) during 2005-2010. It attempts to systematically document poverty for Indigenous Peoples outside the Americas, New Zealand and Australia. Contrary to a preceding publication on Indigenous Peoples poverty in Latin America (Hall and Patrinos 2006) where poverty rates for Indigenous Peoples mostly remained consistent over time certain countries in Asia are making progress in poverty reduction for Indigenous Peoples.
On this website you can find links to the new report Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Development, its related brief and the web page of the reports dissemination workshop held on Dec. 20, 2010. Also available are different country briefs and interview videos with the two main authors of the report, Gillette Hall and Harry Patrinos, and Cyprian Fisiy, Director of Social Development Department as well as the links to the preceding study on Indigenous Peoples poverty in Latin America.