The Demographic, Socio-economic Dimensions of Poverty in the Developmental Centeral - Region in Jordan

This paper investigates the demographic, economic and social dimensions of poverty phenomenon in the developmental Central Region of Jordan. It aims to identify the concept, the means of measurement and the reasons behind poverty in Jordan. Additionally, it gives an overview of the developmental Central Region in Jordan; provides an analysis for demographic, economic and social characteristics for people living in Central Region; identifies the most important variables that effect poverty among families and the relative significance of each variable; analyzes the spatial disparity for the phenomenon of poverty and then for the development level in the studied area; and finally suggests certain strategies to eradicate this phenomenon in Central Region. Some statistical methods were applied to understand the correlation between the income average and some variables so as to show the different levels of poverty in the studied area. These methods include: the multiple regression analysis to measure the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable, and the cluster analysis method which classifies the levels of poverty into different groups within the studied area. The main findings of this study are: the large size of families is due to the high fertility rate with an average of (6.2) child per woman during the period of giving birth. The study reveals that there is a high ratio of dependence and low level of income for most families because of low wages, limited income, low educational level, and high rates of illiteracy especially in rural areas. Implementing multiple regression analysis on studied area demonstrates that there are independent variables which have strong statistical indication at confidence level (a≤0.05). These variables are: population size, house ownership (instead of work) and house facilities (car). Cluster analysis shows that there are five levels of living in Central Region: very high, high, medium, low, poor, very poor. On the light of the findings, the researcher recommends adopting a plan to alleviate the problem of poverty in the studied area. This plan includes a strategy to control woman’s fertility and adopting developmental plans.