Timor-Leste

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Results are from an analysis of the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey. Information on methodology is in the report and in the method briefs.

Prevalence of Functional Difficulties

In Timor-Leste, the share of adults aged 15 and older with any functional difficulty stands at 21%. Separating by level of difficulty, the prevalence rates of some difficulty and at least a lot of difficulty are 18.6% and 2.4% respectively. The prevalence of functional difficulties is lower for women (20.4%) than for men (21.5%). Functional difficulties are more prevalent among older age groups, at 3.4% for ages 15 to 29, 12.2% for ages 30 to 44, 40.6% for ages 45 to 64, and 67.6% for ages 65 and over. Across the six functional domains considered, difficulties with seeing (15.9%) and hearing (6.4%) are most common.

At the household level, the prevalence of any functional difficulty is at 46.6%, including 40% with some difficulty and 6.6% with at least a lot of difficulty. The prevalence of functional difficulties is higher in rural areas compared to urban areas: 23.5% vs. 14.9% among adults and 48.6% vs. 40.3% among households, for rural and urban areas, respectively.

Table 1: Timor-Leste: Prevalence of functional difficulties (%)

Group	Any difficulty	Some difficulty	At least a lot of difficulty
All adults	20.98	18.64	2.35
Females	20.43	18.10	2.34
Males	21.54	19.19	2.35
Rural residents	23.45	20.51	2.94
Urban residents	14.85	13.98	0.87
Ages 15 to 29	3.38	2.85	0.53
Ages 30 to 44	12.16	11.44	0.72
Ages 45 to 64	40.62	37.85	2.77
Ages 65 and over	67.60	55.04	12.56
Seeing	15.93	14.75	1.19
Hearing	6.43	5.60	0.83
Mobility	6.28	5.51	0.77
Cognitive	4.76	4.18	0.58
Self-care	2.58	2.19	0.39
Communication	4.21	3.71	0.49
All households	46.60	39.99	6.61
Rural households	48.55	40.81	7.74
Urban households	40.31	37.34	2.96

Source: Timor-Leste 2016 Demographic and Health Survey, own calculations

Key indicators on the deprivations and wellbeing experienced by persons with and without functional difficulties are presented in Table 2. Table 2 begins with information on the multidimensional poverty headcount—the rate of persons deprived in more than one dimension in the areas of education, work, health, and standard of living. Persons with at least a lot of functional difficulty have a multidimensional poverty headcount of 94% compared to 82% for persons with some functional difficulty and 71% for persons with no difficulty.

Table 2: Timor-Leste: Key indicators for adults age 15+ by functional difficulty status (% and percentage points)

Indicator	No Difficulty	Some Difficulty	Difference between no difficulty and some difficulty	At least a lot of difficulty	Difference between no difficulty and at least a lot of difficulty
Multidimensional poverty headcount	71	82	-11***	94	-23***
Less than primary school	37	71	-34***	90	-53***
Employment population ratio	35	54	-19***	42	-7
Safely managed drinking water	82	79	2**	76	5**
Safely managed sanitation	56	52	4***	46	10***
Clean fuel	10	7	3***	5	4***
Electricity	78	75	3***	70	8***
Adequate housing	37	32	5***	23	14***
Owns assets	31	27	4***	20	12***

Notes: *, **, and *** indicate that the difference is statistically significant at the 10%, 5% and 1% levels respectively. Numbers in the difference columns are in percentage points while all other numbers in the table are percentages.
Source: Timor-Leste 2016 Demographic and Health Survey, own calculations

Education

The share of adults who have less than primary school as their highest level of schooling attained is significantly higher among persons with at least a lot of functional difficulty (90%) and persons with some difficulty (71%) compared to persons with no difficulty (37%). This boils down to gaps of 34 percentage points (p.p.) between persons with some functional difficulty and persons with no difficulty and 53 p.p. between persons with at least a lot of functional difficulty and persons with no difficulty.

Work

Persons with at least a lot of functional difficulty have a higher employment population ratio (or share of the population working) than persons with no difficulty, at 42% and 35%, respectively, but this difference is not statistically significant. At 54%, persons with some difficulty have a significantly higher employment population ratio than persons with no difficulty.

Health

There are significant differences in terms of the rates of access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation, with lower rates for persons with some difficulty and even lower rates for persons with at least a lot of difficulty.

Standard of Living

There are significant differences in terms of the share of individuals with clean fuel, electricity, adequate housing, and asset ownership, with lower rates for persons with some difficulty and even lower rates for persons with at least a lot of difficulty.

More results for Timor-Leste are available in results tables on the ddi website.