World's 'extremely poor' to fall below 10% of population for first time: World Bank

The number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide is likely to fall to under 10% in 2015, according to latest World Bank projections. Estimates for 2012 show that while India was home to the largest number of poor its poverty rate was one of the lowest among those countries with the largest number of poor. World Bank’s latest estimates use an updated international poverty line of $1.90 a day, which incorporates new information on differences in the cost of living across countries. The new poverty line preserves the real purchasing power of the previous one (of $1.25 a day at 2005 prices) in the world’s poorest countries. Using this new line (as well as new country-level data on living standards), the Bank projects that global poverty will have fallen from 902 million people or 12.8% of the global population in 2012 to 702 million people, or 9.6% of the global population, this year.