"Poverty is like a punishment for a crime you didn't commit."
-Eli Khamarov, philosopher
Around the world, in rich or poor nations, poverty has always been present.
In most nations today, inequality—the gap between the rich and the poor—is quite high and often widening.
The new poverty line is defined as living on the equivalent of $1.25 a day. With that measure based on latest data available (2005), 1.4 billion people live on or below that line.
Furthermore, almost half the world—over three billion people—live on less than $2.50 a day and at least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day:
Shah, Anup. “Causes of Poverty.” Global Issues, Updated: 02 Jan. 2011. Accessed: 28 Mar. 2011. <http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty>
The Southeast Asia countries of Afghanistan and Bangladesh are two nations whose people live in extreme poverty. Illiteracy and low levels of school enrollment, extreme hunger, infectious diseases, and unsanitary environments are all effects of extreme poverty.
Bangladesh, with a population of 147.4 million1 is one of the poorest countries in the world, with an estimated 3.4 million people live in some 5000 slums of its capital city, Dhaka2. In 2010, the population of the city of Dhaka has been projected at 17.6 million people, with up to 60% in the slums.
Peter Lance, MEASURE Evaluation
Nearly 75% of Afghanistan's urban population, estimated at close to 5 million, may be living in slums.
In September 2000, leaders from 189 nations agreed on a vision for the future: a world with less poverty, hunger, and disease. This vision took the shape of eight Millennium Development Goals.
Gapminder.org has organized data from around the world to predict poverty, income, and other indicators of poverty in a slideshow.
