# What percentage of the world's poor live in the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 19, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671 "2016-04-19T19:57:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/1 "2016-04-19T19:57:24Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/2 "2016-04-19T20:19:56Z")
I punched in a “worst case scenario” into [this food stamp calculator](http://www.foodhelp.wa.gov/bf_benefit_estimator.htm) … 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. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/3 "2016-04-19T20:31:32Z")
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.](http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/index.html) Assuming your question is about poverty, with [3 billion people in the world living in poverty](http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats), 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. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/4 "2016-04-19T20:35:08Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > I punched in a “worst case scenario” into [this food stamp calculator](http://www.foodhelp.wa.gov/bf_benefit_estimator.htm) … 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/5 "2016-04-19T21:00:07Z")
Or if, as a result of mental illness, you refuse to take advantage of the government safety net. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/6 "2016-04-19T21:17:53Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/7 "2016-04-19T22:01:18Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/8 "2016-04-19T22:28:31Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > 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. That’s according to the world standard for poverty. In the US, the federal poverty level is: > [@](#): > > A measure of income level issued annually by the Department of Health and Human Services. Federal poverty levels are used to determine your eligibility for certain programs and benefits. > > ``` > The amounts below are 2016 numbers and used for calculating eligibility for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). [2015 numbers](http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/15poverty.cfm) are used to calculate eligibility for savings on private insurance plans for 2016. > > ``` > > [ul] > [li]$11,880 for individuals[/li][li]$16,020 for a family of 2[/li][li]$20,160 for a family of 3[/li][li]$24,300 for a family of 4[/li][li]$28,440 for a family of 5[/li][li]$32,580 for a family of 6[/li][li]$36,730 for a family of 7[/li][li]$40,890 for a family of 8[/li][/ul] > **[Federal Poverty Level (FPL) - Glossary](https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-FPL/)** > > Learn about the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) by reviewing the definition in the HealthCare.gov Glossary. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/9 "2016-04-19T22:37:56Z")
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 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/10 "2016-04-19T22:48:13Z")
[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? ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/11 "2016-04-19T23:22:00Z")
It looks like this paper from the [Brookings](http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2014/08/poverty-america-global-context-chandy-smith) 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. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-the-worlds-poor-live-in-the-us/752671/12 "2016-04-20T00:13:30Z")
> [@](#): > > In their new book, “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America,” academics Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer reveal that there are nearly 1.5 million American households with practically no cash income. > > That figure has been on the rise, nearly doubling since 1996 — the same year that a major welfare reform bill was passed. Under the new rules, cash benefits known as welfare were paired with strict work or training requirements. > **[Living on $2 a day: Exploring extreme poverty in America](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/poverty)** > > In their new book, "$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America," academics Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer reveal that there are nearly 1.5 million American households with practically no cash income. Of course a lot of these get food stamps.