Looking at how income poverty is related to individuals’ ability to meet their basic health needs.

What is it about?

Consider a common but, perhaps, simplistic picture of global poverty. According to the World Bank, 47.27% of the world’s population, in 2004, was below the US$2 a day poverty line (World Bank 2007). As much as 17.72% of the world’s population was below US$1 a day poverty line. The World Bank reports that between 1981 and 2004, the number of people below the US$2 a day poverty had fallen by about 20%, while, it says, the number of people below the US$1 a day poverty had fallen by about 40.36% (World Bank 2007). Zooming in below this later poverty line and disaggregating the data by region, we see that, in 2005, 35% of the world’s poverty was in Africa, 32% in East Asia, and 28% in South Asia (Gapminder 2008). In 1970, 56% of the world’s poverty was in East Asia, 30% in South Asia, and only 11% in Africa. Looking at how this income poverty is related to individuals’ ability to meet their basic (e.g., health) needs provides a more detailed picture. Some countries with very low incomes...

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