Arab world’s greatest problem: Poverty

The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies’ 2017-2018 Arab Index found that 30 percent of citizens in the Arab region live "in need," in that their household incomes do not cover their necessary expenditures.

The 2017-2018 Arab Index is based on the findings from interviews of 18,830 individual respondents in 11 separate Arab countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania.

A further 46 percent reported that while their household incomes were sufficient to cover necessary expenditures, it was not enough to sustain savings.

It was found that 87 percent had negative views of U.S. policy toward Palestine. Eighty-one percent of the Arab public showed negative views of U.S. policy toward Syria, and 82 percent demonstrated negative views of U.S. policy toward Iraq.

The report found that the Arab public was divided in its stance on the future of the Arab Spring. Forty-five percent maintain that these revolutions will ultimately achieve their aims, even if they are now going through a difficult phase, while 34 percent believe that the Arab Spring has been aborted before the revolutions could achieve their aims, and that the former regimes have returned to power.