User:Natgorman/Extreme poverty

Extreme poverty

For broader coverage of this topic, see Poverty threshold.

Extreme poverty, deep poverty, abject poverty, absolute poverty, destitution, or penury, is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services" (UN 1995 report of the World Summit for Social Development) Historically, other definitions have been proposed within the United Nations.

In 2018, extreme poverty widely refers to an income below the international poverty line of $1.90 per day (in 2011 prices, equivalent to $2.20 in 2020 ), set by the World Bank. In October 2015, the World Bank updated the international poverty line, a global absolute minimum, to $1.90 a day. This is the equivalent of $1.00 a day in 1996 US prices, hence the widely used expression "living on less than a dollar a day". However, this definition of extreme poverty does not account for inflation, cost of living, cross-country differences in purchasing power or resources readily available. Thus, the first definition is more reliable and used more frequently by poverty scholars.

In the past, the vast majority of the world population lived in conditions of extreme poverty. The percentage of the global population living in absolute poverty fell from over 80% in 1800 to 20% by 2015. According to United Nations estimates, in 2015 roughly 734 million people or 10% remained under those conditions. The number had previously been measured as 1.9 billion in 1990, and 1.2 billion in 2008. Despite the significant number of individuals still below the international poverty line, these figures represent significant progress for the international community, as they reflect a decrease of more than one billion people over 15 years. Although the rate of people living in extreme poverty has been steadily decreasing, it is expected that 2020 will be the first year in 2 decades to see an increase in global poverty rates. The World Bank projects that the total number of people living in extreme poverty will increase by between 88 million and 115 million. This spike is due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as lasting effects of climate change and conflict.