From 2002 to 2013, global poverty declined at a breakneck speed. The number of people in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank, fell from about 1.6 billion to 800 million over that time, even as the world’s population grew.
Unfortunately, according to a new data from the World Bank, the progress seems to be slowing. From 2013 to 2015, the latest year with a final estimate, poverty only fell at a rate of 36 million per year—half the rate of the previous decade.
The slower decline is mostly a result of persistent poverty in a few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to a recently released report by the Gates Foundation, nearly half of all people in extreme poverty will live in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria in 2050. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has called for greater investment in education in the region to bolster poverty-eradication efforts.