Funky Math

The headline screams – India has 93 per cent of Asia’s ‘extremely’ poor.

But then you read the details –

Of the 690 million extremely poor people in developing countries of Asia, 93 per cent are in India, according to a new report of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

93% of 690 = 641. But the actual number –

Of these, 93 percent (357 million) are in India, the People’s Republic of China (203 million), and other South Asian countries (77 million), says the report released Thursday.

357M is more like 50%. Am I missing something obvious? But there is hope –

The ADB foresees the number of people in extreme poverty in developing Asia declining from 690 million in 2002 to 150 million in 2015.

4 thoughts on “Funky Math

  1. Majority of Indian news sources are terrible with proper research and facts.

    A cousin of mine of robbed and assaulted a good 10-15 years ago. All the local newspapers reported it, but fabricated the story in different locations, times, different attackers etc. to ‘spice’ it up.

    English newspapers such as Times of India and Indian Express tend to be the most consistent and credible. The Hindu, Hindustan Times, etc. are better than the local language ones, but not as consistent.

  2. .. and even the Times of India seems to be going down a slippery slope of tabloidisation. I hope they are making good money out of their “August babes” collection..

  3. China uses a different yardstick to measure poverty levels. If I’m not mistaken they use a much lower figure for the poverty threshold, causing their number of poor people to appear smaller.