Poverty

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At a glance

The developing world has likely attained the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the 1990 poverty rate by 2015. The 1990 poverty rate at the $1.25 a day poverty line in 2005 prices was nearly halved in 2008, and preliminary estimates for 2010 indicate that this MDG target was already achieved before the 2015 deadline. The international line of $1.25 a day is the average of the national poverty lines in the poorest 10–20 countries.
The share of the developing world living on less than $1.25 a day was 22 per cent in 2008, down from 43 per cent in 1990 and 52 per cent in 1981. In terms of the number of poor, 1.29 billion people lived on less than $1.25 a day in 2008, as compared to 1.91 billion in 1990 and 1.94 billion in 1981. However, even at the current rate of progress, about one billion people will still live in extreme poverty in 2015.
Progress is less encouraging at higher poverty lines. Only a modest drop in the number of people living bel...