Poverty is strongly associated with all-cause and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality. Less is known about the contribution of poverty to spirometrically defined chronic airflow obstruction (CAO) – a key characteristic of COPD. Using cross-sectional data from an asset-based questionnaire to define poverty in 21 sites of the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease study, we estimated the risk of CAO attributable to poverty. Up to 6% of the population over 40 years had CAO attributable to poverty. Understanding the relationship between poverty and CAO might suggest ways to improve lung health, especially in low- and middle-income countries.