The financial stability and living standards of communities vary drastically, both across the world and within individual countries. Researchers study several factors — not just income — to track poverty levels and determine which steps can improve the quality of life for people in impoverished areas.

Data collected by NASA’s Earth-observing instruments help scientists understand poverty around the world. For example, the intensity of nighttime lights in an area, or lack thereof, can be an indicator of deprivation. NASA also curates socioeconomic data to pinpoint other metrics that contribute to poverty levels, such as infant mortality rates, standards of living, and education.

Our data include several products useful to the study of poverty levels, such as maps of food insecurity hotspots, social vulnerability indices, light-based geospatial income inequality measures, and surveys of dams, reservoirs, and roads. These resources provide a holistic view of prosperity and poverty in communities across the globe, helping decision-makers and applied users better understand how to reduce inequality.