The basic facts about world poverty

In 1981, 52 percent of the world population were poor. By 2005, the number has been reduced to 25 percent. This reduction is mostly due to the achievement in China.

That's the summary of findings by two World Bank economists Shaohua Chen and Martin Ravallion. By "poor", they mean their daily consumption is below 1.25 US dollars, which is the amount of money you need to spend to satisfy the basic energy requirements in the poorest 15 countries.