The World Bank has expanded the poverty marker to $5.50 a day.

This means nearly half the world’s population live on less than $5.50 a day, with a rising share of the poor in wealthier economies and extreme poverty still entrenched in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In a report, the World Bank took a broader look at poverty to see where countries were lagging, even though the share of those living in extreme poverty — defined as earning less than $1.90 a day — has continued to come down in recent years.

Under the expanded criteria for poverty, the report found the number of poor worldwide was still “unacceptably high,” while the fruits of economic growth were “shared unevenly across regions and countries.”

Even though global growth of recent years had been sluggish, the total count of people in poverty declined by more than 68 million people between 2013 and 2015 — “a number roughly equivalent to the population of Thailand or the United Kingdom.”

Despite the improvement, the report said current trends indicated the World Bank’s goal of reducing extreme poverty to less than three percent of the world’s population by 2030 may be unattainable.

“Particularly distressing findings are that extreme poverty is becoming entrenched in a handful of countries and that the pace of poverty reduction will soon decelerate significantly,” the report said.

At the $5.50-a-day threshold, global poverty fell to 46 percent from 67 percent between 1990 and 2015. The bank reported last month that extreme poverty had fallen to 10 percent in 2015.

With China’s rise, East Asia and the Pacific saw a 60 point drop in the poverty rate to 35 percent, but the region is unlikely to continue to achieve that pace going forward as growth has moderated.

And poverty is becoming entrenched in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 84.5 percent of the population still live on less than $5.50 a day, the report said.

And while two decades ago, 60 percent of the global population lived in low-income countries, by 2015, that had fallen to nine percent.

The World Bank also cautioned that in many of those countries, the poor were not sharing equally in economic growth.

700million underserved people

In a related development, the UN says over 700 million people are still unable to meet their basic daily needs.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated this in his message commemorating the 2018 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Guterres highlighted that eliminating poverty in all its forms remained one of the greatest global challenges and priorities.

“Let us remember that ending poverty is not a matter of charity but a question of justice,” he said.

“On this International day for the Eradication of Poverty, let us commit to uphold the core pledge of the 2030 Agenda to leave no one behind,” the UN Chief added.

The UN chief stressed the fundamental connection between eradicating poverty and upholding equal rights for all.

He said that since the day was first marked 25 years ago, “nearly one billion people have escaped poverty, thanks to political leadership, inclusive economic development and international cooperation”.

The 2018 theme is: ‘Coming together with those furthest behind to build an inclusive world of universal respect for human rights and dignity.