The number of poor people in developing countries dropped to record low levels between 2005 and 2008

[pampango]

Record-low poverty levels in developing countries: report

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gAn80GaWzaXJ_LT9wDjDxsqtOGCA?docId=CNG.911f5f89461dea4c72c0496e193c7b58.4d1

Some 1.29 billion people, or 22 percent of the developing world's population, were poor in 2008, down from 1.94 billion people in 1981, the Bank said.

By region, in East Asia and the Pacific -- including China -- about 14 percent of the population were poor in 2008, down from 77 percent in 1981, when it was the region with the highest poverty rate in the world.

In South Asia, the poverty rate fell from 61 percent to 39 percent between 1981 and 2005, and dropped a further 3.0 percentage points between 2005 and 2008.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, while 14 percent of the population was poor in 1984, by 2008 that dropped to 6.5 percent. "The number of the poor rose until 2002 and has been falling sharply since," the report said.

In the Middle East and North Africa, 8.6 million people, or nearly three percent of the population, lived in poverty in 2008, down from 16.5 million in 1981.

The number of poor in eastern Europe and central Asia peaked in 1999 at nearly four percent, but has since dropped to less than 0.5 percent.

And in sub-Saharan Africa, 51 percent of the population lived in poverty in 1981, compared to 47 percent today.

The study ends in 2008 because more recent data from developing countries is either limited or not comparable with previous estimates. Post-2008 studies, however, indicate that global poverty overall kept falling.

It is great that the poverty rate fell from 43% to 22% in the developing world from 1981 to 2008. Very much is still to be done to provide everyone with an acceptable life style, but this significant decline in the worst poverty is a welcome sign of progress.

[LeftishBrit]

1. Good news - but even 22% is a shocking statistic

And I note that a lot depends on where one's talking about. A lot of it is probably a matter of economic improvement in India and the democratization of Latin America. The sub-Saharan Africa figure continues to be terrible.

[Zalatix]

2. And it's all because they impoverished the American working class and drove America into poverty

Do you even want to ask what the growth of poverty has been in America from 2005 to 2008?

[OhioChick]

3. Good question n/t

[Zalatix]

4. How bad is poverty in America now? More Americans than Chinese can’t put food on the table.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/more-americans-chinese-t-put-food-table-132752601.html

[OhioChick]

5. Wow....That deserves a thread of it's own n/t