The number of poor people in Latin America and the Caribbean increased by
20 per cent. If a relative rather than absolute measure of poverty is taken,
shares of the population living in poverty increase in all regions, dramatically
in Latin America and the Middle East (World Bank, 2001c, p. 24).
Even under the most optimistic assumptions about economic growth
between 1998 and 2015 – an average annual growth in GDP per capita of
3.7 percent – it is likely that there will still be 2.3 billion people attempting
to survive on less than $2 a day (World Bank, 2001c; UNDP, 2001, ch. 1).
In symbiotic relationship with such poverty are low levels of productive
capacity, low life expectancy, high infant mortality, illiteracy, the oppression
of women, and grossly unequal distributions of wealth. There are still enor-
mous problems to be confronted arising from poverty, including the ‘silent
genocide’ of high infant mortality, poor nutrition and low standards of living.
Changing worlds
The Third World has changed much since the earliest visions of solidarity and
continues to do so. One leading analysts has claimed that political culture
is now the defining characteristic of the Third World, rather than level of
The Idea of a ‘Third World’ 15Table 1.4 Third World poverty, 1987–98Region Income povertya Relative povertyb
Millions % of population % of population
1987 1998 1987 1998 1987 1998East Asia 417.5 278.3 26.6 15.3 33.0 19.6
Latin America 63.7 78.2 15.3 15.6 50.2 51.4
Middle East/ 9.3 5.5 4.3 1.9 18.9 10.8
North Africa
South Asia 474.4 522.0 44.9 40.0 45.2 40.2
Sub-Saharan 217.2 290.9 46.6 46.3 51.1 50.5
Africa
Totalc 1,183.2 1,198.9 28.3 24.0 36.3 32.1
SOURCE: World Bank (2001c), tables 1.1 and 1.2, pp. 23, 24.
NOTES: aPeople living on less than $1 a day.
bPeople living on less than one-third of average consumption levels at
1993 purchasing power parity.
cIncludes Europe and Central Asia where income poverty has increased
from 1.1 million in 1987 to 24 million in 1998, or from 0.2 per cent of the
population to 5.1 per cent.