A recent survey by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics has indicated that the number of poor Ugandans living in urban areas has gone up.
The 2023/24 Uganda National Household Survey released on Thursday at Hotel Africana indicated that currently, 1.7 million Ugandans living in urban areas are living below the poverty line, an increase from the 1.3 million in 2019/2020.
This means 400,000 Ugandans in urban areas have slipped into poverty in the four years between 2019/2020 and 2023/2024.
The report released on Thursday also indicated that poverty in rural areas has gradually reduced with 5.3 million Ugandans living below the poverty line, a reduction from the 7 million in 2019/2020.
The survey also indicates that there are seven million poor Ugandans, down from 8.3 million in 2019/2020.
Generally, the population below the poverty line has gone down, from 20.3% in 2019/2020 to 16.1% in 2023/2024.
In rural areas, 19.4% of the population is living below the poverty line while 10.3% in urban areas are living below the poverty line.
In terms of regions, Karamoja leads , with 937,500 of the population living below the poverty line , representing 74.2% of all the poor people in the country.
The report also shows that Busoga follows with 840,700 people living below the poverty line.
Buganda with 767,9000, West Nile, 730,000, Bukedi at 718,400, Teso at 709, 100 and Lango among others follow respectively.
The report also shows that Kigezi with 166,300, Ankole with 106,800 and Kampala at 19,200 are the regions with the least number of population below the poverty line.
