According to The World Bank, 1.4 billion people worldwide live below the poverty line.

New figures from the World Bank show that the number of people living on just US$1.25 (about 68p) a day has risen since initial estimates were taken in 1981 – with the number likely to increase even further once the effects of rising fuel and food prices are taken into account.

Around 1.4 billion people (one in four) in the developing world are living below the poverty line (of $1.25) – which includes 50% of the Sub-Saharan Africa population. While poverty in East Asia has decreased, mostly attributable to the progress made by China, it is predicted that a third of the world’s poor will live in Africa by 2015.

Although the number of poor people has increased, the overall global figure shows a decline due to the rapid growth in population, and therefore the world is on target to reach its Millennium goal to reduce poverty by 2015.

The figures are based on the data collected for the 2005 International Comparison Programme (ICP), and had previously not been collated in such a way since 1981. The World Bank believes that the new figures are much more accurate and a major advance in the measurement of poverty.

Justin Lin, The World Bank’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Development Economics said: “The new data confirms that the world will likely reach the first Millennium Development Goal of halving the 1990 level of poverty by 2015, and that poverty has fallen by about one percentage point a year since 1981. However, the sobering news that poverty is more pervasive than we thought means we must redouble our efforts, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Various other organisations are also working to help reduce the number of those living in abject poverty, including Christian Aid, which states that poverty claims the lives of 8 million people every year and that hunger and malnutrition kill more people than AIDS, malaria and TB put together.

The World Bank was founded in 1944 and offers financial and technical assistance to developing countries. It provides grants, low-interest loans and interest-free credit in an effort to reduce poverty in those countries, and last year provided $23.6 billion for 279 projects.