An old hope

My church recently changed its name to "Hope Community Church". My pastor, a Star Wars fan, had a series of talks on "A new Hope". This did make me think about hope in life generally. I think it is fair to say that we all hope for a better life. Generally speaking, nobody wants to be poor.

I was thinking of writing an article on poverty levels,  but found this excellent article from "Our World in Data".  Apart from agreeing with the above point, it makes a lot of other interesting observations. Some of these are

• The level of extreme poverty has been reducing globally, both in relative and absolute terms in the last 3 decades. So, there is hope that we can achieve poverty eradication. I will confess that I was not aware of this trend.
• China has made major contributions to this trend, though not solely responsible. By comparison, a few countries, like Nigeria, have seen increases in the poverty level.
• Having fewer than three children, having greater educational attainment, and living in an urban area are strongly and positively associated with economic well-being.
• Half of those living in extreme poverty are under 18 years old (though accounting for a third of the general population). Similarly, a third of those living in extreme poverty are under 10 years old.

I found it an excellent read. It is long, but I strongly recommend a read.