On a global scale, the vast majority of Americans are either upper-middle income or high income. And many Americans who are classified as “poor” by the U.S. government would be middle income globally.
The first decade of this century witnessed an historic reduction in global poverty and a near doubling of the number of people who could be considered middle income. But the emergence of a truly global middle class is still far from fruition.
When it comes to climate change, publics around the world generally adopt the precautionary principle: Even when in doubt, act out of prudence. In 37 of 40 nations surveyed, willingness to curb emissions that may contribute to warming the planet exceeds intense concern about climate change. Globally, a median of 54% consider climate change to […]
During the first decade of this century, the world experienced a dramatic drop in the number of people living in poverty and a significant rise in the number who could be considered middle income, but the majority of the global population remains low income.
China and India both succeeded in slashing poverty from 2001 to 2011. But while that contributed to a rapidly growing middle class in China, it did little to increase the number of Indians who could be considered middle income.
Updated August 13, 2015: This new edition includes corrected estimates for Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Taiwan, and some related aggregated data. Alwang, Jeffrey, Paul B. Siegel and Steen L. Jorgensen. 2001. “Vulnerability: A View from Different Disciplines.” Washington, D.C.: World Bank, June. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/06/1637776/vulnerability-view-different-disciplines Baicker, Katherine and Amitabh Chandra. 2005. “The Labor Market Effects of Rising […]
Updated August 13, 2015: This new edition includes corrected estimates for Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Taiwan, and some related aggregated data. This report examines changes in the distribution of the global population by income from 2001 to 2011. Of special interest is the change in the global middle-income population, or the global middle class. […]
