Tonga Statistics Department launched the Equality Insights Rapid Report - Tonga Survey, on 12 June, at Nuku’alofa, following the successful completion of household responses survey in Tonga.

Tonga Statistics collaborated with the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, International Women’s Development Agency, Global Technical Advisory Group, and the Women’s Affairs and Gender Equality Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

'Equality Insights' assesses multidimensional poverty by considering fifteen dimensions of life which are: clothing, education, energy, environment, family planning, food, health, relationships, safety, sanitation, shelter, time use, voice, water, and work. It also assesses financial circumstances by measuring assets.

Responses were gathered over the course of seven weeks from people residing in Tongatapu, Vava’u, Ha’apai, and 'Eua, from early May to 30 June 2022. The Niuas were excluded because of the difficulties of its remote location and limited population size. The final dataset included 6,703 individuals from 2,551 households.

“This poverty and inequality measure was implemented in Tonga on 2022, using Equality Insights Rapid which is a new, shorter, phone-based survey that measures deprivation across 15 dimensions of life.”

Tonga Statistics said, “All adults in a sampled household were surveyed individually, with a complimentary household survey used to identify all eligible household members and collect information on a number of questions where circumstances are similar for all household members.”

A representative, multi-stage cluster sampling approach was utilised to gather survey responses from across Tonga. Five strata were identified following the Tongan Statistics Department (TSD) formal census designations, stated Tonga Statistics.

Equality Insight is an International Women Development Agency ‘s flagship program, which focuses on individual-level, gender-sensitive measurement of multidimensional poverty and inequality influenced by various social, economic, and environmental factors and contexts.