Poverty at Higher Frequency

Low incomes are often unsteady within the year. By design, however, poverty headcounts in national statistics downplay the challenges of instability. We introduce the timecount, a measure that explicitly captures the shifting durations and intensities of poverty within the year. We show that, due to survey methodologies, timecounts have unintentionally become the de facto poverty rates in India and other countries, effectively replacing headcounts. In monthly longitudinal data from rural India, the timecount is 28% larger than the conventional headcount, captures deprivations of a wider population, and better predicts child health. We describe consequences for analysis, global policy, and ethics.