href="#fb3_img_img_c5dd71f0-328b-5177-8d98-be6ae330aa1f.gif" alt="Graph depicting the global extreme poverty rate for the period 1980–2000, with 3 descending curves for China, non-OECD countries, and non-OECD countries excluding China."/>
Figure 2.1 Global extreme poverty rate, 1980–2000
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2005.
Table 2.1 gives a closer look at the progress made from 2013 to 2015 in reducing the number of people in poor countries living in extreme poverty, i.e. living daily on $1.90 or less. In the last 25 years, based on daily income statistics, one billion fewer people are living in extreme poverty, and by 2018, the global poverty rate was at its lowest historic levels, according to World Bank president Jim Kim.19
Table 2.1 Global extreme poverty rate
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2018.
| Poverty at the International Poverty Line of $1.90/day (in 2011 purchasing power parity) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Headcount ratio (%) | No. poor (millions) | ||
| 2013 | 2015 | 2013 | 2015 | |
| East Asia and Pacific | 3.6 | 2.3 | 73.1 | 47.2 |
| Europe and Central Asia | 1.6 | 1.5 | 7.7 | 7.1 |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 4.6 | 4.1 | 28.0 | 25.9 |
| Middle East and North Africa | 2.6 | 5.0 | 9.5 | 18.6 |
| South Asia | 16.2 | 12.4 | 274.5 | 216.4 |
| Sub‐Saharan Africa | 42.5 | 41.1 | 405.1 | 413.3 |
| World Total | 11.2 | 10.0 | 804.2 | 735.9 |
Note that much of that progress took place in East Asia and South Asia, where China and India are located. By their sheer population size, overall increases in income of the poorest people in these two countries has significantly improved the global poverty rate. The impressive economic growth that both nations experienced in the late twentieth century, especially China, came after they introduced new economic policies that spurred foreign investments. At the beginning of the 1980s, China was one of the poorest countries in the world with about 60 percent of its people living in extreme poverty. Between 1981 and 2012, China more than halved the number of people living on less than $1.25 per day (reduced by 660 million).20 Poverty rates fell from 51 percent in 1990 to about 24 percent in 2015.21 By 2017, the rate of extreme poverty (people living on less than $1.90) in China had fallen dramatically: down to 0.7 percent of the population.22 The unprecedented reduction of extreme poverty in China and India are shown in Figures 2.2 and 2.3 respectively. Figure 2.4 demonstrates the global trend in poverty reduction.
Overall, the global growth in wealth last century corresponded to marked increases in well‐being, as illustrated in this excerpt from a report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP):
Progress in human development during the twentieth century was dramatic and unprecedented. Between 1960 and 2000 life expectancy in developing countries increased from 46 to 63 years. Mortality rates for children under five were more than halved. Between 1975, when one of every two adults could not read, and 2000 the share of illiterate people was almost halved. Real per capita incomes more than doubled from $2,000 to $4,200.23
Figure 2.2 Poverty trend (by International Standards: $1.90 USD): China
Source: World Bank, Poverty and Equity Database and PovcalNnet, 2018.
Figure 2.3 Poverty trend (by International Standards: $1.90 USD): India
Source: World Bank, Poverty and Equity Database and PovcalNet, 2018.
Figure 2.4 Percent of the global population living in poverty on less than $1.90 USD a day: International Poverty Line ($1.90)
Source: World Bank, Poverty and Equity Database and Povcalanet, 2018.
Mainstreaming Sustainable Development
Continuing to focus on positive developments, one can find many reasons to feel optimistic. As discussed in Chapter 1, in 2000, representatives of 189 nations met in a conference sponsored by the United Nations and adopted
