Global Poverty Rate Lowest in History

 

The percentage of people around the globe living in poverty or extreme poverty has fallen to its lowest level in history, a university economist asserts.

In 1820, the share of the global population living in poverty was 94 percent, while 84 percent lived in "extreme" poverty. By 1992, the poverty rate had dropped to 51 percent while the extreme poverty rate had fallen to 24 percent.

Using a different measure of poverty, the international poverty rate has dropped from 53 percent in 1981 to 17 percent in 2011, according to Max Roser, a fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School in England.

"In the past only a small elite lived a life without poverty," Roser said. "Since the onset of industrialization — and as a consequence of this, economic growth — the share of people living in poverty started decreasing and kept on falling ever since."

The international poverty line Roser used is $1.25 a day in 2005 purchasing power.

"The history of capitalism, as portrayed in academia and among much of the media, is a sad story. It's one of smokestacks, sweatshops, child labor, robber barons, social stratification and general exploitation of workers," the Washington Examiner observed.

But Roser's research "tells a much different story — one of industrialization being associated with a rapid decline in poverty."

Roser's website Our World in Data features graphics depicting the steady increase in people's wealth over the centuries.

In the year 1500, Renaissance Italy was the only region among those for which data is available where the gross domestic product per capita was above $1,000 in 1990 dollars.

In 1700, the GDP was above $2,000 per capita only in England, Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

By 1820, most of Western Europe had a GDP per capita over $1,000, although the average life expectancy was under 40.

Moving ahead to 1913, the United States, England, and Australia had GDP per capita of from $6,000 to $10,000, along with Belgium Canada, and the Netherlands.

In 1960, the U.S. was the only nation with GDP per capita from $10,000 to $20,000, although several Middle Eastern oil sheikdoms had GDPs higher than $20,000. By 2008, America's GDP was over $25,000, as was the GDP per capita in Australia, Norway, Switzerland, and Ireland. China's was less than $10,000.

 

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