Viewpoint: We Need a New Global Measure for Poverty
By Max Roser
Until fairly recently the majority of humanity lived in what we would now consider extreme poverty. Just two centuries ago, about three-quarters of the world were extremely poor. In the words of the development researcher Michail Moatsos, who painstakingly produced this historical estimate, most people “could not afford a tiny space to live, food that would not induce malnutrition and some minimum heating capacity.” Hunger was widespread, and around the world, for much of human history about half of all children died before reaching adulthood. Today, that picture has changed dramatically. Entire nations have largely left the deep poverty of the past behind.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Hendry.