The world poverty rate is dropping pretty drastically: though about 52% of people in the developing world lived on less than $1.25 US Dollars (USD) a day in 1981, about 22% did as of 2008. By 2015, it's estimated that this percentage will further drop to about 15%. The improvement is thought to be due to improved economies (especially in Asia); better education (particularly in sub-Saharan Africa); and increased funding and interventions in diseases (like malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV).
More about poverty:
- The median poverty rate for developing countries is $2 USD a day.
- Despite improvements, about a quarter of children in the developing world remain underweight.
- East Asia has had the greatest improvement in terms of poverty since the 1980s, when 77% of people were living on less than $1.25 a day. By 2008, that percentage had dropped to 14%.