Extreme poverty

Extreme poverty, abject poverty, absolute poverty, destitution, or penury, was originally defined by the United Nations (UN) in 1995 as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services." In 2018, extreme poverty widely refers to an income below the international poverty line of $1.90 per day (in 2011 prices, equivalent to $2.12 in 2018), set by the World Bank. This is the equivalent of $1.00 a day in 1996 US prices, hence the widely used expression "living on less than a dollar a day". The vast majority of those in extreme poverty — 96 percent — reside in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the West Indies, East Asia, and the Pacific; nearly half live in India and China alone. As of 2018, it is estimated that the country with the most people living in extreme poverty is Nigeria, at 86 million. In the past, the majority of the world population lived in conditions of extreme poverty. According to United Nations estimates, in 2015[update] roughly 734 million people remained under those conditions. The number had previously been measured as 1.9 billion in 1990, and 1.2 billion in 2008. Despite the significant number of individuals still under the international poverty line, these figures represent significant progress for the international community, as they reflect a decrease of more than one billion people over 15 years. However, in public opinion around the world, people surveyed tend to incorrectly think that extreme poverty has not decreased. The reduction of extreme poverty and hunger was the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG1), as set by the United Nations in 2000. Specifically, the target was to reduce the extreme poverty rate by half by 2015, a goal that was met five years ahead of schedule. In the Sustainable Development Goals, which succeeded the MDGs, the goal is to end extreme poverty in all its forms everywhere. With this declaration the international community, including the UN and the World Bank have adopted the target of ending extreme poverty by 2030.