These charts prove that the world is getting dramatically better, not worse
Tomorrow is Red Nose Day, an annual fundraising campaign organized by public charity Comic Relief Inc. to help alleviate child poverty. In the U.S. alone, one in seven families lives below the federal poverty line of $23,834 a year. For both black and Hispanic families, approximately one-in-four families face poverty. These levels increased in the past 10 years, thanks to the Great Recession.
These statistics look dire, and they are. America’s poverty problems are real, and worth the serious attention of policy makers. But on the global level, it’s important to remember that poverty is falling in stunning, unprecedented fashion.
As this chart from American Enterprise Institute expert Mark Perry illustrates, global poverty levels have fallen from an astounding 94% in 1820 to just 9.6% in 2015, with the most dramatic fall coming in the years since 1970.
This is a good chart to show your friend who can’t stop complaining that everything is getting worse, all the time: