Causes of Poverty. Author and Page information by Anup ShahThis page last updated Sunday, September 28, 2014 Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).
Poverty is the state for the majority of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Poverty Facts and Stats Poverty Around The World. Poverty Facts and Stats. This figure is based on purchasing power parity (PPP), which basically suggests that prices of goods in countries tend to equate under floating exchange rates and therefore people would be able to purchase the same quantity of goods in any country for a given sum of money. That is, the notion that a dollar should buy the same amount in all countries. Hence if a poor person in a poor country living on a dollar a day moved to the U.S. with no changes to their income, they would still be living on a dollar a day. The new poverty line of $1.25 a day was recently announced by the World Bank (in 2008). For many years before that it had been $1 a day.
But the $1 a day used then would be $1.45 a day now if just inflation was accounted for. The new figures from the World Bank therefore confirm concerns that poverty has not been reduced by as much as was hoped, although it certainly has dropped since 1981. National Poverty Center | University of Michigan. How does the United States measure poverty? The United States determines the official poverty rate using poverty thresholds that are issued each year by the Census Bureau. The thresholds represent the annual amount of cash income minimally required to support families of various sizes. The methodology for calculating the thresholds was established in the mid-1960s and has not changed in the intervening years.
The thresholds are updated annually to account for inflation.[1] A family is counted as poor if its pretax money income is below its poverty threshold. A sampling of the poverty thresholds for 2010 is included in the table below. SOURCE: U.S. Poverty guidelines are a simplified version of poverty thresholds and are issued by the Department of Health and Human Services to determine financial eligibility for certain federal programs. How many people were poor in 2010? In 2010, 15.1 percent of all persons lived in poverty. How has poverty changed over time? SOURCE: U.S. SOURCE: U.S. Hunger Almanac 2010. 3A+The+Almanac+of+Hunger+and+Poverty+in+America+2010%3A+National+Statistics.