This paper illustrates how the cost-of-basic-need method was used to estimate a poverty line on the basis of the 2007 Iraq Household Socio-Economic Survey. The task of setting in place a poverty line for Iraq is complicated by the presence of the Public Distribution System, probably the largest food-based transfer program operating anywhere in the world. Rations are currently supplied to more than 30 million Iraqi beneficiaries. That notwithstanding, according to the estimated poverty line we find
that 23 percent of the Iraqi population is classified as poor.