Bryce Sharp, Aidan Fraas, and Surya Bhamidi
Cape Town, South Africa. (Credit: Wix Images)
In 2015, 10% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. That translates to roughly 733,900,000 people living on under two dollars a day. People living in poverty are more likely to be malnourished, commit crimes, die young, and so forth. Obviously living in extreme poverty is very dangerous, and poverty should be kept to a minimum if possible. However, the solution to poverty isn’t obvious at first glance. In this article, we will see why this is, go over 3 countries that all have varying levels of poverty, and elaborate on why the countries are in their position.
Hungary
Hungary is a country that is doing very well for its citizens, keeping poverty to a minimum. Hungary has a very modern economy, focused mostly on the service sector, with considerable exports of raw materials as well. Most economists believe that Hungary is doing so well because of its very stable government, mixed economy, and relative ease of doing business.
Brazil
Poverty in Brazil has declined at a relatively similar rate to global poverty. It is ahead of the median by a fair margin, getting poverty down to 10% by the early 2000’s and it is still on the decline. Brazil’s economy is very industry focused, with a large influx of tourists carrying the tertiary sector. The main exports of Brazil are sugar, steel, and gold. However, the economy isn’t as great in practice because of serious overcrowding issues and its inability to seriously compete with the more developed countries of the world, as inefficiency is a real problem.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia has made great strides in curbing poverty, but they’re still behind the rest of the world by a sizable margin. Ethiopia is Africa’s fastest growing economy, mostly due to its strides in infrastructure, manufacturing, and a railway system. The reason that Ethiopia is currently so poor can be drawn from the large number of subsistence farmers. Many of the farmers barely bring in enough to survive, and thus can’t grow better crops or upgrade their tools.
Income of Countries
The general trend is that despite the social class or relative poverty of a region, poverty has been declining at a steady rate. As countries continue to diversify and develop, poverty will continue to decline. Poverty is obviously a problem, but one that needs little more than natural development and time to be corrected.
Regions of the World
As you can see, the general rate of poverty has decreased across all areas. Each region had an overall decrease, with those that are currently industrializing having the biggest falls (most of Asia). This is in comparison to places like Africa that are still mostly underdeveloped or Europe which is already developed.