We say that someone who lives on less than $1.90 a day is extremely poor.
It’s the case of 800 million people in the world. They are mainly in Asia and Africa.
Very rich people are billionaires. There are about 1800 of them in the world.
Between them, they are richer than half the world’s population!
The richest man in the world is the American, Bill Gates, who founded the software company, Microsoft.
He is worth $90 billion*, which means he’s richer than countries like Ivory Coast or Bolivia! (*Chiffre de août 2016)
Most of these superrich people are CEOs of companies, especially in the field of new technologies.
Poor people often live in underdeveloped countries.
Their poverty means they have… no schools, no electricity, roads or businesses.
Poverty is reinforced by inequality and the unfair sharing of wealth.
Wars and natural disasters such as drought are also causes of poverty.
But thanks to international aid programs, the number of poor people is slowly going down.
According to the World Bank, in 1990, one in 3 people in the world were very poor. Today, that proportion is now… one in 10!