New data from the World Bank show that the proportion of extremely poor people has more than halved over the last 30 years, from 42% of the global population in 1981 to 17% in 2010. While 1.2 billion people in the developing world still live on less than $1.25 per day – a problem that we certainly must address – the rate of extreme poverty has never been lower.
因此，有必要回过头查看并确认许多指标都表明世界正在改善。世界银行的新数据表明，极端贫困人口比例在过去30年中下降了一大半，从1981年占总人口的42%下降到2010年的17%。尽管12亿发展中世界的人们每天的生活费仍不到1.25美元——这毫无疑问是必须得到解决的问题——但极端贫困率从未如此之低。经济学家估算，在1820年，超过80%的人口生活在极端贫困中。