Poverty is the most concerned topic of Pakistan’s economy. The issue has gathered
an immense importance since it has been placed among the central issues of millennium
development goals set by IMF. The poverty trends in Pakistan have never been found
stable. The declining trends of poverty during the periods of 70’s and 80’s were reversed in
90’s. These ever changing trends of poverty reveal the inconsistent and unsuitable policies
for poverty reduction in Pakistan. The aim of the present study is to analyze the
determinants of rural poverty by using simple regression model. The study is based on
primary data sets. The main purpose of the study is to analyze the impact of various socioeconomic
and demographic variables on economic status of rural households. Poverty has
been measured in terms of per capita income and wealth index. The Wealth Index (WI) is
constructed from the household survey conducted for the present analysis. It is concluded
that the number of earners , school going children, number of rooms, room per member,
source of drinking water, number of children , number of females , per month income of
households have significant positive impact on the wealth of a household. The results
suggest that poverty can be alleviated by improving wealth status of rural households in
real term by providing better health, education and employment opportunities both for
males and females in rural areas.