Article 4SGY Which is the poorest city in the world?

Which is the poorest city in the world?

by
Nick Compton
from on (#4SGY)

Ranking hardship is not a simple, or happy, task - but as the world urbanises, city poverty becomes ever more important. Here are the places that struggle most

For most of history, and despite the stereotype of urban squalour, it has been the countryside where poverty has particularly thrived. But as the world urbanises, poverty is moving with it. Over the past decade, the share of poverty in the developing world blighting cities rather than rural areas has jumped from 17% to 28%. In sub-Saharan Africa, almost a quarter of all poverty is urban. In east Asia, half.

You know it when you see it, of course, but modelling poverty is a complicated business, and ranking hardship not a simple, or happy, task. One thing is certain, though: given that China has so effectively hauled much of its population out of pauperism, and with North Korea statistically dark, sub-Saharan Africa has the most extreme examples of urban impoverishment.

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