Although poverty has decreased over the past two centuries,
about 40 percent of the world's population still lives on less
than $2 per day. Approximately one in seven people, just under
one billion, subsist on less than $1 per day. The most extreme
cases of poverty surface in the least developed countries of the
world, particularly in heavily populated South Asia and sub
Saharan Africa, as well as in rural areas within those regions.
Although the United States is considered the richest country in
the world, it has the highest poverty rate among industrialized
nations. As prosperity has increased, so too has inequality, not
only around the globe but also within countries. World Poverty
explores how to define, measure, and keep track of poverty; the
causes of poverty; and counterstrategies. Detailed case studies
examine the situations in the United States, India, Syria, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, and the Ukraine,
and investigate the strategies that these national governments
have adopted t