Poverty

• 1. Defining The Poor

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  The word poverty comes from the old Norman French term poverté, which traces back to the Latin paupertas and the root pauper. This linguistic history anchors a modern debate about what it means to be poor in 2025. Two main measures dominate global statistics today. Absolute poverty compares income against the amount needed for basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter. Relative poverty measures when a person cannot meet a minimum living standard compared to others in the same time and place. The European Union defines relative poverty using an EEC Council Decision from December 1984. That decision states that the poor are persons whose resources exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in their Member States. In 1990, the World Bank introduced the dollar a day poverty line as a measure to meet such standards of living. By 2015, this threshold was updated to living on less than US$1.90 per day. Some scholars argue this bar is too low while others claim it is set too high. Philip Alston, a UN special rapporteur, stated the international poverty line allows for self-congratulatory triumphalism in the fight against extreme global poverty.

• 2. Global Poverty Statistics

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  In 1981, about 1.76 billion people lived above $1.25 per day while 1.9 billion lived below that line. By 2005, the number of people living below $1.25 per day fell to 1.4 billion. The share of the world's population living in absolute poverty dropped from 43% in 1981 to 14% in 2011. This represents a fall in the absolute number of people in poverty from 1.95 billion to 1.01 billion over thirty years. Yet economist Max Roser estimates the total number of people in poverty remains roughly the same as 200 years ago because the world population grew significantly during that period. In 1990, China accounted for nearly half of all extreme poverty globally. Between 1990 and 2015, the percentage of the world's population living in extreme poverty fell from 37.1% to 9.6%. Sub-Saharan Africa saw extreme poverty rise from 41% in 1981 to 46% in 2001. In 2018, statistics showed population living in extreme conditions had declined by more than 1 billion in the last 25 years. A report published on the 19th of September 2018, stated world poverty falls below 750 million. However, in July 2023, over 200 economists sent a letter warning that extreme poverty and extreme wealth have risen sharply simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.

• 3. Health And Hunger Cycles

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  One-third of deaths around the world amount to some 18 million people annually due to poverty-related causes. Malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases. Almost 90% of maternal deaths during childbirth occur in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa compared to less than 1% in the developed world. Infectious diseases such as malaria decrease GDP growth by up to 1.3% in some developing nations. AIDS decreases African growth by 0.3, 1.5% annually. Thirty-six point eight million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2017 with 954,492 deaths recorded that year. One study found that children exposed to poverty-stricken environments have slower cognitive thinking. In a 1996 survey, 67% of children from disadvantaged inner cities said they had witnessed a serious assault. Another study showed that among families who saw a dramatic increase in income, instances of behavioral and emotional disorders decreased. The World Health Organization highlights that social determinants like insecure housing are strongly associated with poor mental health outcomes. A psychological study found that stressors such as low income contribute to mental disorders.

• 4. Education And Social Mobility

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  Students from low-income families are 2.4 times more likely to drop out than middle-income kids. They are over 10 times more likely than high-income peers to drop out. Children in poverty are at higher risk for retention in their grade and special deleterious placements during school hours. Schools in poverty-stricken areas often promote inferior academic performance including irregular attendance. In Mauritania the adjusted gender parity index is 0.86 on average but only 0.63 for the poorest 20%. Poor girls face especially marked disparity in countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, and Yemen. In some pastoralist economies like Lesotham or Namibia, exceptions occur where boys' labor is relied upon. Deworming children costs about 50 cents per child per year and reduces non-attendance from anemia and illness. Schoolgirl absenteeism could be cut in half by simply providing free sanitary towels. In Mexico dropout rates of 16-to-19-year-olds in rural areas dropped by 20% under a conditional cash transfer program. Children gained half an inch in height while stopping begging on streets instead of going to school because it resulted in suspension from the program.

• 5. Housing And Infrastructure Gaps

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  Slum-dwellers make up a third of the world's urban population living in poverty no better than rural people. There are over 100 million street children worldwide. As of 2012, 2.5 billion people lack access to sanitation services and 15% practice open defecation. Bangladesh had half the GDP per capita of India yet has lower mortality from diarrhea with deaths declining by 90% since the 1990s. The poor buy water from vendors for about 5 to 16 times the metered price. In Africa it costs more to move fertilizer from a seaport inland than to ship it from the United States due to sparse roads. Fertilizer costs reach two to six times the world average. Telehealth reduced travel costs alone for Alaska by $13 million in 2021. It also reduced the life expectancy gap between whites and American Indian populations from eight years to five years. Landlords increase rent on newly renovated real estate causing poor people to leave their neighborhoods during gentrification. A Global Witness report noted that illicit capital flight is estimated at ten times the size of aid received by developing nations.

• 6. Gender And Discrimination Dynamics

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  Women are the group suffering from the highest rate of poverty after children in what is called the feminization of poverty. Women are more likely to be caregivers regardless of income level which exacerbates the burdens of their poverty. Children are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as adults. Many women become victims of trafficking as a means of survival and economic desperation. In Zimbabwe some girls turn to sex in return for food to survive because of increasing poverty. Poverty and lack of access to birth control can lead to population increases that put pressure on local economies. Better education for both men and women reduces population growth due to family planning. Cultural values such as discrimination against people with physical disability or racial discrimination negatively affect productivity. Max Weber suggested cultural values could affect economic success but researchers gathered evidence suggesting changing economic opportunities explain most movement into and out of poverty.

• 7. Strategies For Reduction

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  In 1968 Paul Samuelson, John Kenneth Galbraith and another 1,200 economists signed a document calling for US Congress to introduce a system of income guarantees. Winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics including Herbert A. Simon and Milton Friedman support basic income. Studies of large cash-transfer programs in Ethiopia Kenya and Malawi show they increase consumption schooling and nutrition. In India a 2008 study concluded money spent on in-kind transfers could lift all poor out of poverty for that year if transferred directly. Central bank digital currencies allow even areas without internet access to conduct digital transactions using simple feature phones. Microloans made famous by the Grameen Bank loan small amounts to borrowers lacking collateral. However Arundhati Roy asserts some 250,000 debt-ridden farmers have been driven to suicide in India. Raising farm incomes is described as core of antipoverty effort since three-quarters of the poor today are farmers. Growth in agricultural productivity of small farmers is at least twice as effective in benefiting poorest half of population as growth generated in nonagricultural sectors. The World Bank concludes governments extending right to land people live and use are key to reducing poverty.