Nonetheless, the rural population has declined faster than the number of people living in poverty in rural areas (see figure II.12).This implies a greater "ruralization" of poverty, as measured by an index similar to that used to analyse gender differences. This index rose from 1.59 to 1.89 between 2002 and 2016, indicating that poverty as a whole has become relatively more prevalent in rural areas. In contrast, extreme poverty has become less "ruralized',' as the index fell from 3.42 in 2002 to 3.14 in 2016, although its level of ruralization is still much higher than that of general poverty).