EquityTool: Update released July 1, 2025

The EquityTool has been updated based upon new source data. The original version is no longer active but is available upon request.
Previous version released: June 28, 2018

Source data: Guinea MIS 2021

# of survey questions in full wealth index: 48

# of variables in full index: 129

# of survey questions in EquityTool: 13

# of variables in EquityTool: 14

Questions:

Technical notes:

During the initial steps of creating this EquityTool it was discovered that the urban and rural sample sizes provided within this DHS’s supporting documentation did not correspond to those found within the dataset itself. These discrepancies limited our ability to validate many of the descriptive statistics we consider for inclusion during the EquityTool creation process and also raised questions about how the wealth index provided in the dataset was produced. For these reasons, we chose to recreate the wealth index and to use our newly recreated wealth index as the standard against which we would later compare interrater reliability of the simplified EquityTool wealth index. The standard simplification process was applied to achieve high agreement with the original wealth index. However, after completing the standard simplification process, an additional variable was added to improve the indices’ ability to discriminate between the first and second quintiles. Details on the standard process can be found in this article. The data used to identify important variables comes from the factor weights released by ICF.

Level of agreement:

Respondents in the original dataset were divided into three groups for analysis – those in the 1st and 2nd quintiles (poorest 40%), those in the 3rd quintile, and those in the 4th and 5th quintiles (richest 40%). After calculating their wealth using the simplified index, they were again divided into the same three groups for analysis against the original data in the full MIS. Agreement between the original data and our simplified index is presented above.

What does this mean?

When shortening and simplifying the index to make it easier for programs to use to assess equity, it no longer matches the original index with 100% accuracy. At an aggregate level, this error is minimal, and this methodology was deemed acceptable for programmatic use by an expert panel. However, for any given individual, especially those already at a boundary between two quintiles, the quintile the EquityTool assigns them to may differ to their quintile according to the original MIS wealth index.

The graph below illustrates the difference between the EquityTool generated index and the full MIS wealth index. Among all of those people (20% of the population) originally identified as being in the poorest quintile, approximately 75% are still identified as being in the poorest quintile when we use the simplified index. However, approximately 21.5% of people are now classified as being in Quintile 2. From a practical standpoint, all of these people are relatively poor. Yet, it is worthwhile to understand that the simplified index of 13 questions produces results that are not identical to using all 48 questions in the original survey.

The following table provides the same information on the movement between national quintiles when using the EquityTool versus the original MIS wealth index:

The following graph provides information on the movement between urban quintiles when using the EquityTool versus the original MIS wealth index:

The following table provides the same information on the movement between urban quintiles when using the EquityTool versus the original MIS wealth index:

Data interpretation considerations:

1. This tool provides information on relative wealth – ‘ranking’ respondents within the national or urban population. The most recent available data from the WorldBank indicates that 11.7% of people in Guinea live below $3/day[1]. This information can be used to put relative wealth into context.
2. People who live in urban areas are more likely to be wealthy. In Guinea, 59% of people living in urban areas are in the richest national quintile, compared to only 2% of those living in rural areas[2].
3. If your population of interest is predominantly urban, we recommend you look at the urban results to understand how relatively wealthy or poor they are, in comparison to other urban dwellers.
4. If the people you interviewed using the EquityTool live in rural areas, or a mix of urban and rural areas, we recommend using the national results to understand how relatively wealthy or poor they are, in comparison to the whole country.
5. Some regions in Guinea are wealthier than others. It is important to understand the country context when interpreting your results.
6. In most cases, your population of interest is not expected to be equally distributed across the five wealth quintiles. For example, if your survey interviewed people exiting a shopping mall, you would probably expect most of them to be relatively wealthy.

Between 2012 and 2021, there were some notable changes in Guinea’s asset ownership rates. For example, the percentage of households with bank accounts increased by more than 70 percentage points, and the percentage of households with cement wall material increased by nearly 30 percentage points. However, the percentage of households with wall material: stone with lime/cement declined by more than 20 percentage points.

Changes in Country Context

Changes in the EquityTool often reflect changes in the economic well-being of the population. As the population wealth changes, the prevalence of different assets may change.

The following table provides a summary of some key indicators that illustrate how the economic well-being of the population of Guinea has changed from 2012 to 2021.

The GDP per capita and annual GDP indicate that Guinea’s economy grew between 2012 and 2021. Accompanying this economic growth has also been a decrease in the poverty headcount as measured by the international poverty line. This economic improvement, over time, will reduce the previous Guinea EquityTool’s ability to accurately assign households to their most correct wealth quintiles.

Metrics for Management provides technical assistance services to those using the EquityTool, or wanting to collect data on the wealth of their program beneficiaries. Please contact support@equitytool.org and we will assist you.

[1] From pip.worldbank.org, reporting poverty headcount ratio at $3/day at 2021 international prices.
[2] From the Guinea dataset household recode, available at http://dhsprogram.com/
[3] From Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (October 2024). “Guinea Country
Briefing”, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford.
[4] From data.worldbank.com, reporting GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2021 international $)
[5] From data.worldbank.com, reporting average of GDP growth (annual %)