Brookings Institution provides some interesting (and interactive) perspective on extreme poverty over the 1990 to 2030 estimated period, which it calls the Final Countdown. As extreme poverty (less than $1.25 per day) approaches zero, the remainder of afflicted peoples are in the weakest and most fragile states.
Particular comparisons between China, India and Sub-saharan Africa remind us that a combined 1.097 billion people will have escaped extreme poverty by 2030 in China and India alone, with China already far down the road. These unprecedented developments support other data that estimates a tripling of Asia’s middle class from today to 2030, dramatic increases in both K12 and college educational attainment, and new emerging markets.
Unfortunately, Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to add extreme poverty numbers between 1990 and 2030, based on its own population explosion and despite relatively robust GDP growth rates. Growth in Africa is not being translated into individual well-being across the population, or is it fast enough to keep pace (for recent perspective on income distribution and growth in Africa, see here).
Meanwhile, let the charts speak for themselves.
