Friday, September 21, 2018

1.3 Billion in Poverty

The Multidimensional Poverty Index released Thursday by the U.N. Development Program and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative says  1.3 billion people are living in poverty — including 662 million children. 46 percent of the 1.3 billion are considered to be severely impoverished.

The index considered such things as nutrition, child mortality, schooling, cooking fuel, sanitation, safe drinking water, housing and assets. People judged to be deprived for one-third of the indicators are considered “multi-dimensionally poor.” Those deprived in half are rated severely poor.

 In addition to the 1.3 billion classified as poor, another 879 million risk slipping further into multidimensional poverty due to conflict, sickness, drought, unemployment and other setbacks.

According to new data from the World Bank, poverty only fell at half the rate of the previous decade. The slower decline is mostly a result of persistent poverty in a few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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