Fewer countries than ever are in the world’s lowest income bracket, but rising wealth inequality means that Monaco has about 400 times more cash to spend on each citizen than Malawi does, World Bank data show.
The percentage of people living in countries defined as “low-income” has fallen by 80 percent over the past two decades, according to the data.
In 1994, there were 3.1 billion people living in 64 low-income nations, but last year, there were 613 million people in 31 of the world’s poorest countries.
Sustained economic growth over the past year has catapulted Bangladesh, Burma, Kenya and Tajikistan out of low-income status, which is defined as countries with a gross national income per capita (GNI) of US$1,045 or less.
These countries have become middle-income economies, which are those with an GNI per capita of between US$1,046 and US$12,736. High-income economies are those that yield more than US$12,736 GNI per capita a year.
Nearly every low-income country is now in sub-Saharan Africa, with just Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti and Nepal ranking in the poorest category from outside Africa.
Malawi has raised its GNI per capita by just US$70 over the past 20 years to US$250 per person. In contrast, Norway has seen its per capita GNI soar from US$26,010 to US$103,050 over the same period.
While official GNI estimates for Monaco were not available, the World Bank said it was at the top of the rankings, largely because of its population of just 37,831 people. Liechtenstein, with 36,925 people, ranked second-highest in GNI.
The World Bank said Vietnam was one of the best-performing developing economies over the 20-year period, as its economy surged from a GNI of just US$130 in 1990 to US$1,890 this year.
Argentina, Hungary, Seychelles and Venezuela moved from the upper-middle income category to high-income, the data showed.
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