The percentage of the world living in poverty has declined by nearly 60 percent in the last 30 years, from 52 to 21 percent. That is an astounding number, especially as the world population has risen from 4.933 billion to 7.215 billion in 2015, a 31.6 percent increase, during that same period.
Even extreme global poverty — defined as lack of access to clean water, enough food, sufficient clothing and shelter, or basic medicine like antibiotics,which impacts 1.4 billion people today — has declined from 21 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2013.
Despite these facts, 67 percent of Americans said they thought that global poverty had gotten worse over that time period, according to a Barna Group in conjunction with Compassion International, a child advocacy ministry.
Why so pessimistic? Hearing the news each night regularly puts people in a foul mood, but really, it’s a lack of awareness of efforts that have been made. Fortunately, knowledge is power.
Compassion International’s take is that Christians have a responsibility to be involved in helping relieve poverty, and happily reports that many Christians agree. It notes that more Christians donated to anti-poverty causes than the U.S. population as a whole, and donated more cash than non-Christians overall. This is true for Christians over and under 40 years of age.
The survey also found:
Fewer people are likely to have volunteered for a poverty-related cause in the past year. Practicing Christians, however, are still more likely than the general population to have spent time working to end global poverty. Among all adults, 14 percent volunteered for a church and 11 percent volunteered for a non-profit to help the global poor. Among practicing Christians, one-third of those over 40 volunteered at a church to help the global poor and about one-quarter (24 percent) did so at a non-profit. Among those under age 40, 36 percent volunteered at a church to help the global poor and one-fifth (21 percent) did so at a non-profit.
Still, two-thirds of Americans don’t believe that poverty can be eradicated in the next 25 years, despite it dropping so much in such a short time. They fault corruption, the enormity of the problem, government corruption, and an uncoordinated global response among causes of poverty’s persistence.
As research shows, poverty can be eradicated by creating greater opportunity. The freeing of markets across the globe is the most credited reason for poverty’s reduction. In other words, the ability of people to pursue opportunities to build their own livelihood is the single-greatest facilitator in the reduction in poverty.
Read the global poverty perceptions survey here.
