In fact, although Chile and Uruguay have similar poverty rates, child poverty in Chile is 1.8 times greater than it is among the adult population, while in Uruguay it is 3.1 times greater. This would produce artificially high child poverty rates. This line represents the cost of meeting the basic needs of one person. Measuring poverty this way assumes that the per capita cost of meeting an individual's basic needs is unaffected by the number of persons living in a household or by the household’s demographic characteristics.