Basic Facts

• Due to rapid economic growth, Asia has made dramatic progress in the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, halving the proportion of people living on US $1 a day. However, this progress varies across the different parts of Asia.

• The greatest gain was in Eastern Asia, where the proportion of people living in extreme poverty fell from 33% in 1990 to 9.9% in 2004. In South-East Asia, the proportion dropped from 20.8% in 1990 to 6.8% in 2004.

• However, this positive trend has been accompanied by rapidly rising inequality within countries. Asia’s path to the MDGs may also be obstructed by challenges in other areas such as health, environmental sustainability and gender equality, including deforestation, unplanned urbanization and the fast rate of HIV/AIDS infections in some parts of the region.