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Journalism of Courage
Just over a quarter of the world population,or 1.4 billion people,lived in extreme poverty in 2005,according to the World Bank. That compares with 42 per cent in 1990,when the bank first published its global poverty estimates. Rapid economic growth has led to a dramatic decline in poverty in China,where the share of people below the threshold of 1.25 a day fell from 60.2 per cent to 15.9 per cent between 1990 and 2005. But the poverty rate fell much more slowly in India,to 41.6 per cent in 2005 from 51.3 per cent in 1990. South Asia has the most very poor people of any region in the world. But the fraction of the population that lives in extreme poverty is highest,at 50.9 per cent,in sub-Saharan Africa,though it has fallen there from 57.6 per cent in 1990.
The Economist Newspaper Limited 2009
