The media may paint a different picture sometimes, but facts are facts: fewer people are living in extreme poverty than at any point in history.

A new report shows that 200 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty since 2012 — and since 1990 that global population figure has been slashed by 61%.

As the world advances toward a goal of wiping out extreme poverty completely in the next 15 years, the biggest gains since the last World Bank survey in 2012 have been achieved in East Asia and the Pacific region. There, extreme poverty was reduced by 43% in three years, according to the new report by the World Bank. Since 1990, the rate in the region has plummeted by 91%.

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"This is the best story in the world today—these projections show us that we are the first generation in human history that can end extreme poverty,'' World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said.

The World Bank set its extreme poverty line based on purchasing power for basic food, clothing, and shelter for the purposes of their survey, defining it as income of less than $1.90 per day.

The World Bank and United Nations both have goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030.

Photo: World Bank

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