What percentage of the world's poor live in the US?

From what I recall the definition of poverty by the World Bank is something like $2/day per person. I was reading that 13% of the worlds poor, by this definition, live in China. What percentage of the world’s poor live in the US? I’m having a hard time Googling this for some reason. I was curious after watching the video what the percentages were for other countries than China…it’s hard to judge that 13% figure without some context. If anyone has an easy cite for this, or their GoogleFu is better than mine, I’d appreciate it. Also, if you have other countries I’d be interested in that as well to give that supposed 13% figure some context.

I punched in a “worst case scenario” into this food stamp calculator … spit out $194 per month, or about $6 a day.

I’m not saying no one in the USA live on less than $2 a day, just that there’s no reason too. Theoretically then, 0% of the USA’s population live in poverty.

If you’re asking what percentage of people in the U.S. are poor, the Census Bureau says it was 14.8% or 46.7 million people in 2014.

Assuming your question is about poverty, with 3 billion people in the world living in poverty, that puts the U.S. share at just under 0.5%.

But if you’re asking what percentage of people in the U.S. are living on $2/day --** $720/yr.** – I don’t know if there are any income stats that measure that low. I doubt that anyone that poor bothers to file a tax return, and even then, those figures would be skewed by 16-year olds reporting their babsysitting/lawn-mowing income.

Unless you are a legal immigrant who has not lived in the US for more than 5 years.

Or an undocumented immigrant.

Or a student.

Or you’ve been convicted of a felony.

Or you’re on strike.

Or you are not disabled, unemployed, have no children, are between the ages of 18 and 50, and have gotten food stamps for 3 months in a 3 year period already.

Lots of holes in that safety net.

Or if, as a result of mental illness, you refuse to take advantage of the government safety net.

I’m not sure you could live in a Western country on $2 a day. Wouldn’t you be dead of starvation? Of course, in that situation you could live by begging food, but most beggars beg money to buy food, not food itself

If we’re talking about living on $2 a day … then no … if we’re talking about only spending $2 a day … then sure, I’ve done it … food banks, soup kitchens, transient shelters, charity … it all adds up in a hurry.

That’s according to the world standard for poverty. In the US, the federal poverty level is:

That’s the problem with these sort of statistics. ‘Living on $2 a day’ is not a well-defined term.

Even in terms of developing countries where the bulk of very low income people live, ‘living on $2 a day’ means a very different thing for a subsistence farmer who has to provide all their own necessities for living (but has most of the resources to enable themselves to do so), compared to a day-labourer in a big city who has no option but to pay for all their food with money.

(@watchwolf, not Duckster BTW :slight_smile:

[quote=“XT, post:1, topic:752671”]

From what I recall the definition of poverty by the World Bank is something like $2/day per person. /QUOTE]

I’m curious about this as a measure of poverty. Doesn’t $2 buy a lot more in some countries than others?

Many years ago it was kinda a thing for certain jobs (particularly telephone customer service jobs) to be moved overseas. For example, the Indian customer service rep was a popular source for humorous skits and the like. But those jobs, which paid a lot less in their new country than in the US, were highly sought after, and put the person who got the job into the middle class.

So might not $2/day in some countries be the equivalent in buying power of the ~$30/day considered by the US government to be at the poverty level?

It looks like this paper from the Brookings institute asked the OP’s question. They concluded that “If we measured poverty in the U.S. as if it was a developing country, we would conclude that no-one falls under the $2 threshold.”

However, their paper goes on to provide a more complex, nuanced examination, although they ultimately conclude that it’s not possible to come up with a single definitive answer because of all of the variables.

Of course a lot of these get food stamps.