World growth and poverty

The vertical axis measures millions of people in $1-poverty; the horizontal axis is per capita income. Bubble size represents total population. China is the massive bubble sliding south-easterly and thereby reducing world poverty. Sub-Saharan Africa is the bubble that hasn't moved at all.

Economic growth is the single most powerful force we know for improving the lives of the very poor.

The data are from Chen and Ravallion (2007); see also Quah (2007), "Life in unequal growing economies"

http://econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/dquah/index_own.html#lug

A clearer gif video is available at

http://econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/dquah/p/1-2007.08-SERC-lug-dq.gif

This video was created using Excel, LaTeX, and ImageMagick.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• growth
• poverty
• China
• globalization

[pronatalist]

Uh, aren't the bubbles supposed to be growing bigger?

People are supposed to be growing their families and populations.