📉 New study: Poverty has decreased more than we thought, as has inequality – including within countries

📉 New study: Poverty has decreased more than we thought, as has inequality – including within countries

Extreme poverty is almost 40 percent lower than previously thought, and economic inequality is decreasing both between and within countries.

Warp Editorial Staff
Warp Editorial Staff

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Researchers agree that both extreme poverty and economic inequality have decreased between 1980 and 2019. The question is by how much.

According to a new study from the American National Bureau of Economic Research, the progress is even better than previously thought.

  • Extreme poverty measured by how many live below the $2.15 per day threshold was just over 6 percent in 2019, compared with figures from traditional measurement methods of around 10 percent.
  • This means that global welfare, measured according to the Sen index, has increased 20 percent more than previously thought.
  • Poverty based on $3.65 and $6.85 has decreased much more sharply than previously calculated.
  • Not only has global economic inequality between countries decreased, but economic inequality within countries has as well. Not least in large countries like China, India, and Indonesia.
📈 Human ProgressExtreme PovertyPoverty

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