International poverty
While poverty is on the upswing in the U.S. …
The number of Americans living in poverty jumped by 1.3 million last year as household incomes held steady, the Census Bureau said Wednesday.
The percentage of the U.S. population living in poverty rose to 12.5 percent from 12.1 percent — as the poverty rate among children jumped to its highest level in 10 years. The rate for adults 18-to-64 and 65 and older remained steady.
The bureau also said that the share of aggregate income for the lowest 20 percent of Americans fell to 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent.
[source: CNNmoney]
… it seems to be on the decline in Asia …
Asia’s surging economic growth has helped to reduce levels of poverty in the region, a report has said.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimated that the number of people living on less than $1 a day fell to 22% of the region’s population in 2002.
That compares with 34% in 1990 and shows “considerable progress in the fight against poverty”, the bank said.
[source: BBC]
Hmmm!!
6 comments
It sounds intriguing…. to say the least. As an isolated piece of statistic(s), this sounds so encouraging… but I wonder what it really means…. ? That Americans are getting poorer while Asians richer - or less poorer?
The pitfalls of the ‘average’ ! Just shows - statistics can be used to prove just anything…
but what is your take on this, Sameer?
i agree with Charu, i wonder is ‘poverty’ for the Americans.
…poverty sucks. it isn’t for anyone….
but i think a lot of us americans have had a wake up call
Charu >> You’re right. The numbers alone will not tell the full story… simply because of qualitative reasons that are ignored in such stats. I posted about these resports because I encountered them on two different sites and thought it would be interesting to sort of link them together. However I do not imply that one is a consequence of the other!
hima >> everything is relative. so what is ‘poverty’ for americans may/may not be ‘poverty’ for others. :)
demasking >> you’re right. :-)
hey sam, I was not suggesting that you implied anything of that sort….. I was just thinking about how numbers can be so misleading…. esp when quoted out of context to prove a point (not by you :)))))