“What is happening in regard to world poverty is somewhat obscured by the fact that the World Bank has chosen an absurdly low international poverty line of $1.25 PPP 2005 per person per day. If you choose a low poverty line of $1 a day (PPP 2005) or the World Bank’s currently preferred line of $1.25 a day, you find considerable declines in the number of poor. But if you use a higher poverty line, like $2 or $2.50 (PPP 2005), you find that the number of poor has stood still or has actually slightly increased. This observation is highly significant in regard to the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG-1): ”to halve poverty by 2015.” If we use the very low poverty line the World Bank prefers, we will very easily achieve this goal. If we use higher poverty lines, such as $2 a day or $2.50 a day, we will get nowhere near achieving that target. Relative to a poverty line of $2.50 per day, the reported number of poor has actually increased slightly during the first fifteen years of the twenty-five year period (1990-2015) that MDG-1 is focused on.” Source: heinonline.org