CALL TO ACTION | Chapter 4 Exercise 46B Understanding the challenge of living in poverty
Key Skills Success criteria I can explain how poverty could limit how I live my life.
The World Bank sets the international poverty line at US$1.90 (€1.60) per day for low-income countries (such as Afghanistan, Liberia and Haiti), US$3.20 (€2.70) for lower to middle-income countries (such as India, Egypt and Ukraine) and US$5.50 (€4.64) for upper to middle-income countries (such as Brazil, Mexico and China). Ireland is classed as a high-income country with a rate of US$21.70 (€18.33) per day. Anybody living below these rates is classed as living in extreme poverty. In 2020, just under 10% of the world’s population lived on less than US$1.90 per day and more than 40% − 3.3 billion people − lived on less than US$5.50.
Percentage of people in each country living below the international poverty line
1. Make a list of how you could carry out your weekly activities on €18.33 per day, which comes to €128.31 per week, if you had to pay for all the costs yourself. Remember to include the cost of accommodation, food, transport, electricity and fuel and purchases such as medicine if needed, plus pens, pencils, etc.