Bermuda -- which was listed as having the third highest standard of living in the world last week -- has sent a representative to a Caribbean workshop on how to reduce poverty through statistical information.

The meeting, being held in St. Lucia, is a ten-day workshop on how census data can be used to help reduce poverty in the region.

More than 40 delegates from the English-speaking Caribbean, plus the Bermuda representative, will attend the training workshop organised by the Secretariat of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in collaboration with the World Bank Institute.

The official theme of the workshop is "Analysis of census and survey data for the formulation of social policy and poverty reduction strategies in the Caribbean''.

Government has confirmed it has sent social statistician Melinda Watson to represent Bermuda.

"Bermuda is going because it feels it can get something out of our going as they will discuss new ways of doing things,'' a spokeswoman for Government said.

And she said that while it might seem strange for Bermuda to be going to a workshop which addressed poverty, the Island will benefit from looking at ways of using statistics to analyse living conditions.

She added poverty was only one part of the workshop, with an emphasis on how to analyse data.

"Analysing social and living conditions is just one of the things on the agenda. A lot of work is using the latest statistical tools. Not all countries involved have the capacity to use census data to formulate policy. Bermuda is one of the few places that is able to analyse its own information. Many others use consultants.'' The workshop has become necessary because many poverty reduction strategies in the region have been developed without informed data, the St Lucia-based OECS secretariat said.

The participants in the workshop are expected from the Eastern Caribbean, the Caribbean as well as other territories including Bermuda and the Caicos Islands.

"The wide participation reflects the strong interest by the region's governments in the link between census data and poverty reduction,'' the OECS Secretariat said in a release.

It said participants were expected to return home with increased skills for analysing and interpreting data for the use in developing social policies and poverty reduction programmes, and assessing the impact of the policies.

The feature address will be delivered by St Lucia's Acting Minister of Planning, Development and Housing Jon Odlum.

Recently The Royal Gazette reported Bermuda had been listed the third richest country in the world with average wages higher than the US, according to figures released from the World Bank.

The tiny European states of Luxembourg and Liechtenstein are listed ahead of the Island when it comes to purchasing power in 1999.

Purchasing power -- based on the average wage -- in 1999 in Luxembourg, which topped the table, was $41,230. No figure was listed for Liechtenstein in second place or Bermuda.

But according to Bermuda's Quarterly Bulletin of Statistics for the fourth quarter of 2000, the average wage on the Island was approximately $41,495. It is not known if average wages in Luxembourg have increased since 1999.

The United States is in fourth place with a purchasing power of $31,910. The US still has the largest economy, twice the size of China, which has overtaken Japan to be the second biggest economy in the world.

Luxembourg is also listed by the World Bank as the wealthiest country when it comes to gross national income (GNI) per head in 1999, formerly gross national product.

Bermuda is listed as fourth in the world in this category with an unlisted GNI, trailing behind Luxembourg ($42,930), Liechtenstein, unlisted, and Switzerland ($38,380).