Telling an Old Story with New Maps - Geographic Visualization: Concepts, Tools and Applications - page 90

Text Box 5.19: Absolute Poverty (up to $2 a day)
Absolute poverty is defined as living on the equivalent of US$2 a day or less. In 2002,
43% of the world population lived on this little. This money has to cover the basics of
food, shelter and water. Medicines, new clothing, and school topics would not be on
the priority list.
When almost an entire population lives on this little, it is unsurprising if undernour-
ishment is high, education levels are low and life expectancy short. In both Nigeria and
Mali, nine out of every 10 people survive on less than US$2 a day.
South America has a relatively small poor population, yet 39 million people have
less than US$2 a day in Brazil.
Trickle-down theory - the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse
enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows
(John Kenneth Galbraith, undated)
5.2.19 Living on up to $10 a day
As this income series increases the dollar value cut-off, new territories become visible on
the map. Now at least seven Eastern European territories are visible; more Middle Eastern
territories appear and they are bigger than before; South America has started to expand;
North America (one-third of the so-called 'rich triad') also reports many people living on
very low incomes. This map shows a total of 3.499 billion people - which was over half the
Figure 5.21 Territory size shows the proportion of all people living on US$10 purchasing power
parity or less a day worldwide that lives there (Worldmapper Map 153)