POVERTY, VULNERABILITY AND CLASS: THE EXPANDING NON‐POLAR GROUPS AND DEVELOPMENT
| Date | 01 October 2012 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1627 |
| Published date | 01 October 2012 |
| Author | Andy Sumner |
POVERTY, VULNERABILITY AND CLASS: THE EXPANDING
NON-POLAR GROUPS AND DEVELOPMENT
ANDY SUMNER*
Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK
SUMMARY
Middle-Income Countries (MICs) are now home to most of the world’s extreme poor—up to a billion people. At the same time,
many MICs are also home to a drastically expanding group of people with expenditures of between $2 and $10 per capita/day.
Globally, this ‘emerging middle’or ‘non-polar’or ‘in-between’group, which accounts for 2.5 billion people worldwide, may be
above the average poverty line for developing countries but in all likelihood is still at risk of experiencing poverty. This article
outlines indicative data on trends relating to poverty and the non-poor by different expenditure groups and critically reviews the
recent literature that contentiously labels such groups as ‘middle class’. The article argues that such groups are neither extreme
poor nor in all likelihood secure from poverty and that such groups are worthy of closer examination because their expansion
may potentially have wider societal implications, for example, related to taxation, governance and, ultimately, domestic politics.
Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
key words—poverty; middle; income; countries; class; vulnerability
INTRODUCTION
Middle-Income Countries (MICs) are now home to most of the world’s extreme poor—up to a billion people. At
the same time, many MICs are also home to a drastically expanding group of people with expenditures of between
$2 and $10 per capita/day. Globally, this ‘emerging middle’or ‘non-polar’or ‘in-between’group, which accounts
for 2.5 billion people worldwide, may be above the average poverty line for developing countries but in all likeli-
hood is still at risk of experiencing poverty. This article outlines indicative data on trends relating to poverty and
the non-poor by different expenditure groups and critically reviews the recent literature that contentiously labels
such groups as ‘middle class’. The article argues that such groups are neither extreme poor nor in all likelihood
secure from poverty and that such groups are worthy of closer examination because their expansion may potentially
have wider societal implications, for example, related to taxation, governance and, ultimately, domestic politics.
The article is structured as follows. The second section outlines trends in the data for the ‘non-poor’. The third
section critically reviews the recent literature that contentiously labels such groups as ‘middle class’. The fourth
section concludes.
TRENDS IN GLOBAL POVERTY AND THE ‘NON-POOR’
Although the percentage of the world’s population in poverty has fallen, the number of people in the world living
on under $1.25/day has barely changed since 1990 if China is excluded (and in fact has risen slightly by the $2
poverty line). Most of these poor live in MICs, which account for almost one billion extreme poor (Sumner,
2012a, 2012b).
1
*Correspondence to: A. Sumner, IDS, Sussex, UK. E-mail: a.sumner@ids.ac.uk
1
The world’s multi-dimensional poor are also concentrated in MICs (Alkire et al., 2011). And the world’s ill health and disease and mortality
burden is also MIC concentrated (Glassman et al., 2011).
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 32, 444–454 (2012)
Published online in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1627
Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
To continue reading
Request your trial