World Bank: Extreme poverty ‘to fall below 10%’

BBC: World Bank: Extreme poverty 'to fall below 10%'

The World Bank has said that for the first time less than 10% of the world's population will be living in extreme poverty by the end of 2015.

The bank said it was using a new income figure of $1.90 per day to define extreme poverty, up from $1.25.

It forecasts that the proportion of the world's population in this category will fall from 12.8% in 2012 to 9.6%. …

… However, the report's authors said the "growing concentration of global poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is of great concern".

Extreme poverty in that region is seen as falling from 46.2% in 2012 to 35.2% at the end of 2015. …

… The World Bank says the downward trend is due to strong growth rates in developing countries and investments in education, health, and social safety nets. …

… And the bank warned that poverty is "becoming deeper and more entrenched in countries that are either conflict ridden or overly dependent on commodity exports".

1990: 1,959 billion = 37.1% of world's population.
1999: 1,747 billion = 29% of world's population.
2012: 902 million = 12.8% of world's population.
2015: 702 million = 9.6% of world's population.