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by datax2 305 days ago
I am not a fan of their initial "Global Income Distribution" curve. if you take the actual data at the bottom of the article and plot it; it does not make anything the resembles a standard distribution as portrayed. It could be an infographic, it could be different axis, who knows, but portraying a standard distribution is wrong if you have an outlying skew in your distribution. Everything under $40 is a standard distribution, but above $40 represents the same volume of people as the average skewing any sort of plotting.

For 2025 only

Global People | Dollars

1,183,873,832 | above $40

389,144,677 | $30-$40

681,087,495 | $20-$30

1,647,364,177 | $10-$20

1,134,291,724 | $7-$10

1,170,170,455 | $5-$7

1,185,828,184 | $3-$5

700,440,541 | $1-$3

107,765,635 | <$1

3 comments

The x-axis isn't "income", it's "log income".
I wish these numbers were percentile relative to the local economy and not in made-up "international dollars."

It means absolutely nothing that 1.1B people live on $3-5/day and a different 1.1B live on $5-7. Can you survive in the local economy on $2/day? Then $4/day is not that bad, and $7/day is doing pretty well.

I'm no international poverty economist, but I imagine lower income relative to neighboring countries would still have some effect. For instance, if a poor country suffers a famine in its staple crop, can that government and its citizens afford to import food?
Yes I'm familiar with PPP. "International dollars" is something completely different. What is your point?
That’s a fair criticism but given how the economy has globalized, people also exploit that discrepancy by hiring remote workers abroad so it’s not completely irrelevant
It would be nice to see above 1000