Poverty in Lebanon more than tripled in past decade: World Bank

Report shows country has slid into a protracted financial crisis, with Syrian refugee population hit particularly hard.

Poverty in Lebanon has more than tripled over the past 10 years, with the overall proportion of the country’s population living below the poverty line soaring to 44 percent, according to the World Bank.

The bank’s report, released on Thursday, was conducted in five of the country’s eight governorates, showing that poverty rose from 12 percent in 2012 to 44 percent in 2022, with stark differences between different areas of the country.

In Beirut, poverty actually declined from 4 to 2 percent of the population over the decade, while in the largely neglected Akkar region in the north, the rate increased from 22 to 62 percent.

The report also revealed glaring differences between Lebanese citizens and the country’s large population of Syrian refugees. While the poverty rate among Lebanese was 33 percent in 2022, it reached 87 percent among Syrians that same year.

However, when including factors such as access to electricity and education as well as income – so-called “multidimensional poverty” – researchers found that 73 percent of Lebanese and 100 percent of non-Lebanese residents qualified as poor.