Many measures of poverty are currently available and used. The World Bank proposes absolute values, expressed in an estimate of income in standardized United States Dollars. The United Nations Development program proposes a Human Poverty Index based on the
Human Development Index. The Demographic and Health Surveys propose a relative index of wealth, based on principal components within each country. We propose here another measure, an Absolute Wealth Index based on the number of modern good and amenities owned by a household. We show that this index is a powerful tool for assessing differentials in demographic outcomes, and that it can be used in a variety of ways for measuring poverty and inequalities. We show that its simplicity does not reduce its screening value. We interpret our Absolute Wealth Index as a measure of the degree of integration of a household into modern economy, and a clear proxy for development.