The UN anticipates that, on the whole, global poverty will be halved by 2015. Poverty reduction rates, however, still vary greatly by region.
- The global economic recession slowed poverty reduction rates significantly.
- Rapid economic growth in China lifted 475 million people out of extreme poverty, but sub-Saharan Africa saw 100 million more extremely impoverished people in 2005 than in 1990.
- Employment growth rates have stagnated in most of the world; no progress is foreseen in sub-Saharan Africa.
- By 2015, one billion people globally are still expected to live in extreme poverty.