Economic Demographic Characteristics of Poor Female Headed Households in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Economic demographic characteristics of poor female headed households in Sri Lanka are an important area to study to formulate better policies to alleviate poverty in Sri Lanka. The study uses the Household Income and Expenditure Survey of 2001/02 that covered 16,924 households (71,293 population) in the seven provinces in Sri Lanka. This study uses the method of Cost of Basic Needs approach to derive poverty line and it use to identify the poor households. The study used the cross sectional approaches with special techniques of radar diagrams to highlight the economic demographic characteristics of poor female headed households. The characteristics compared are age, sex, dependents, marital status, level of education, usual activities, occupations and the level of income and expenditures. The findings reflect some facts which merit careful attention in the task of Sri Lankan poverty alleviation policies