The 10 poorest countries in the world

The 10 poorest countries in the world

Poverty is a phenomenon that plagues several nations of the world and must be understood as the lack of decent living conditions, with the absence of food, housing and clothing. It is understood that a large part of the world's population - mainly African countries - lives in these conditions. The Human Development Index (HDI) is used to measure the level of poverty in societies today, and takes into account education, income and life expectancy.

The ranking of the richest and poorest countries in the world was defined considering the elements of HDI, education, life expectancy and income. The 10 poorest countries in the world, according to the 2018 UN Human Development Report, are:

1- Niger: located in West Africa, the country has most of its territory located in the desert. The lack of water, food, education and sanitation is the main social problem.

HDI: 0.377

Life expectancy: 61.6 years

Average schooling: 3.1 years

Per capita income / year: U$ 444

Ranking: 188th out of 188th

2- Central African Republic: located in the center of Africa. It belonged to France until the 1960s, when it became independent. It has several ethnic and religious conflicts in its territory, which has already decimated a large part of its population and explains its various social problems.

HDI: 0.381

Life expectancy: 52.24 years

Average education: 4.2 years

Per capita income / year: U$ 475.72

Ranking: 188th out of 188th

3- Chad: it was a French colony until 1960 and has more than 200 different ethnicities in its territory. Conflicts are motivated by this ethnic-racial variety, and despite the fact that oil exists in its territory, it has high levels of poverty.

HDI: 0.401

Life expectancy: 53.71 years

Average education: 2.3 years

Per capita income / year: U$ 728.34

Ranking: 187th out of 188th

4- South Sudan: it has natural resources such as oil, but it is one of the poorest countries in the world, and its biggest problems are: infant mortality and health, considered one of the worst in the world.

HDI: 0.413

Life expectancy: 57.36 years

Average education: 4.8 years

Per capita income / year: U$ 1,119.65

Ranking: 186th of 188th

5- Burundi: became independent in 1962. It has several conflicts involving the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and refugees, and has a large illiterate population, the country's biggest social problem.

HDI: 0.423

Life expectancy: 60.90 years

Average education: 3.0 years

Per capita income / year: U$ 271.75

Ranking: 185th out of 188th

6- Mali: the country is also a former French colony, since its independence in 1960. It was not successful in its economy, being one of the worst countries in production in the world. It also suffers from environmental problems, such as desertification and drought.

HDI: 0.427

Life expectancy: 58.45 years

Average education: 2.3 years

Per capita income / year: U$ 899.66

Ranking: 184th out of 188th

7- Eritrea: country belonging to the Horn of Africa, gained its independence after almost 30 years of conflict with Ethiopia. Its main social problems are: lack of quality education, sanitation and human rights, which are disrespected.

HDI: 0.434

Life expectancy: 65.54 years

Average education: 3.9 years

Per capita income / year: U$ 811.38

Ranking: 182nd out of 188th

8- Burkina Faso: it was a French colony until the 1960s. Since its independence, it has not developed, being among the poorest countries in the world, with problems related to hunger, misery and lack of access to health and education.

HDI: 0.434

Life expectancy: 60.77 years

Average education: 1.4 years

Per capita income / year: U$ 715.12

Ranking: 182nd out of 188th

9- Sierra Leone: the country was extensively exploited by Portugal and the United Kingdom, and also faced a civil war between the 1990s and the 2000s. These factors explain the fragile and underdeveloped economy of the country, being underdeveloped.

HDI: 0.438

Life expectancy: 53.90 years

Average education: 3.3 years

Per capita income / year: U$ 533.99

Ranking: 181st out of 188th

10- Mozambique: Portuguese colony until 1970, it became independent and went through a civil war from 1977 to 1992. Despite its natural wealth, the country has one of the poorest and most illiterate populations in the world, especially women, who have an average age of of schooling less than 2.5 years.

HDI: 0.446

Life expectancy: 59.31 years

Average education: 3.5 years

Per capita income / year: U$ 498.96

Ranking: 180th of 188th

Criteria that classify the poorest countries in the world:

The HDI specifically measures the education, income and life expectancy of a given society. This rating standard considers a scale from 0.000 to 1 point. The closer the country is to zero, the worse the living conditions of its society and the lower the quality of life of that people, and the closer the country is to 1, the better the conditions and quality of life of that group will be.

When thinking about the aspects analyzed by the HDI, such as education, it is expected that all of that society will be fully literate, without presenting a deficit in reading or textual interpretation, considering the average time that students attend school and whether they know operations basic math. Therefore, the longer the child or adolescent remains in school, it is understood that the better conditions will be for the country to be developed.

Income is calculated by simply dividing a country's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by the number of inhabitants. The GDP is the sum of all the wealth of the country, through the services and goods produced in the analyzed year. In this way, we arrive at the per capita income. Through a group's income, it is possible to identify its ability to buy and consume various products, food, access to goods and services, and also unemployment.

In health, the average life expectancy of that society is analyzed. When life expectancy is high (around 75 years), it means that that social group has access to medicines, disease treatments, medical resources and sanitation. Otherwise, we find a society with a low average life expectancy (below 50 years), which does not have adequate medical treatments and whose population dies from health problems that could be controlled if there were basic investments and serious public policies concerned with the low-income population.

Poverty concept:

The concept of poverty, according to the United Nations, refers to populations that do not have access to the physiological needs of food, shelter and clothing. In general terms, it is understood that they are groups of people who cannot eat, dress and live with dignity.

Concepts about poverty are always similar, they understand that poor people are those who cannot obtain food, comforts, standards and services that allow them to participate in society in general, that is, these individuals are below the minimum standards of dignity

This concept is not something new, it accompanies studies on society since the beginnings of human organization, since social groups need decent conditions to exist. This dignity is present when it is observed that people have adequate housing, with access to sanitation, treated water, sewage, electricity, an income adequate to the number of people in the family, transportation, food, among other elements.

All these elements are analyzed by the Human Development Index (HDI), which was considered by the UN from the 1990s onwards. Today it is used precisely to classify countries as rich or poor.

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Source: https://mundoeducacao.uol.com.br/curiosidades/10-paises-mais-pobres-do-mundo.htm