The Living Conditions Monitoring Surveys conducted from 1991 to 2006 have shown that the incidence of poverty has reduced over the years. The results show that the incidence of poverty declined from 70 percent in 1991 to 64 percent in 2006. The gains of this reduction can be noticed in rural areas, where the incidence of poverty reduced from 88 percent in 1991 to 78 percent in 2006. In contrast, the incidence of poverty in urban areas increased from 49 percent in 1991 to 53 percent in 2006.

Generally, the incidence of poverty reduced between 1991 and 2006 in almost all the provinces except in Central, North-Western and Western. Western province consistently emerged as the poorest province in all the six surveys. In fact the incidence of poverty in Western Province remained the same (84 percent) in 1991 and 2006.

• The proportion of the unemployed among persons aged 12 years and above for the nation was 14 percent.
• Looking at sex differentials at national level, 13 percent of the males and 15 percent of the females were unemployed.
• Urban areas recorded higher unemployment rates (32 percent) than rural areas (5 percent).
• Copperbelt and Lusaka provinces recorded higher unemployment rates than the other provinces with 31 percent each.
• Eastern and Luapula provinces recorded the lowest unemployment rates with 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
• The highest unemployment rates for females were recorded in Lusaka Province at 41 percent followed by Copperbelt with 40 percent.

INCOME DISTRIBUTION (2006)

• The mean monthly income for a Zambian household in 2004 was K 511, 377.
• The modal income group for the country ranged from K150, 001-K300, 000, representing 26 percent of the population.
• Only about one in every three households (35 percent) had mean monthly incomes that exceeded K 300, 000; implying that the majority of Zambian households, or approximately 65 percent, had incomes below the basic needs basket.

ACCESS TO HEALTH FACILITIES (2006)

• In Zambia, majority of households, about 95 percent had access to a health facility. More urban households, 96.2 percent reported having used the facility compared to their rural counterparts with 94.4 percent.

• In terms of proximity to the health facility, majority of the households in Zambia (75.5 percent), were within a 5km radius of key socio-economic facilities, which included a health facility, middle basic school, hammer mill or public transport.

• Urban households were more advantaged in terms of access to all the facilities than rural households. About 93.0 percent, of urban households were within a 5 km radius of a health facility compared to 54.5 percent of their rural counterparts

ACCESS TO SAFE WATER (2006)

• The proportion of households with access to safe water was 59 percent. Access to safe water was higher in urban (about 89 percent) than in rural areas (about 43 percent).

• Lusaka province had the largest proportion of households with access to safe water (96 percent) while Northern Province recorded the smallest proportion of households with access to safe water with about 16 percent.

SANITATION (2006)

• About 59 percent of households in Zambia had own pit latrine, 7.3 percent communal latrine, and another 4.6 percent used neighbours’ pit latrines.
• Fifteen percent used flush toilets (9 percent own flush toilet inside house, 5 percent own flush toilet outside house and 1 percent shared flush toilet). About 13 percent of the households regrettably did not have any toilet facility.

• More of the rural households than the urban households used pit latrines (76.8 percent) compared to 59.8 percent of the urban households.
• The proportion of households without a toilet facility was 53.4 percent in Western Province, 33.2 percent in Southern Province and 21.5 percent in Eastern Province.

ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY (2006)

• About 19 percent of households in the country had access to electricity. More households in urban areas, 49.3 percent had access to electricity than those households in rural areas, 3.2 percent.

• Among the provinces, Lusaka recorded the largest proportion of households with access to electricity (51.4 percent), followed by Copperbelt (43.9 percent), Southern (13.5 percent), and Central (11.9 percent). The province with the lowest proportion of households with access to electricity was Western Province (3.5 percent)

CHILD NUTRITIONAL STATUS (2006)

• Overall, 54.2 percent of children aged 3–59 months were stunted in Zambia.

• Urban children were reported to have better nutritional status than children in rural areas. Only 47.8 percent of children in urban areas were stunted, compared to 56.6 percent of children in rural areas. Variations in underweight by residence and province follow patterns similar to those observed for stunting. Wasting remained the same for both urban and rural.

• At provincial level variations in nutritional status were substantial, with Luapula, Eastern Northern and Central provinces reporting stunting levels above the national average of 54.2 percent. The low percentages of stunted children were however reported in Western province with 39.6 percent.