r/dataisbeautiful • u/ourworldindata OC: 33 • 1d ago
OC [OC] China reduced extreme poverty fast, but Indonesia hasn’t been far behind
China is often the poster child for rapid reductions in poverty, and for good reason. In the early 1980s, over 90% of its population lived in extreme poverty, but by the early 2020s, that number had dropped to nearly zero.
Some might assume that China is the only reason why global extreme poverty has declined. But that’s wrong: many countries have seen dramatic reductions in poverty, too. Indonesia is one clear example; it’s shown alongside China on the chart.
In 1984, 86% of Indonesians lived on less than $3 per day. By 2025, this had fallen to less than 4%. While it didn’t quite match China’s decline, it has still been impressive. The number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen from 140 million to about 10 million.
Note that the international poverty line is extremely low, defined as people living on less than $3 per day. But Indonesia has also made progress when measuring higher poverty lines.
Data source: World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026)
Tools used: Python, OWID Grapher, Figma
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u/Zingzing_Jr 19h ago
Few reasons. But I'll focus on one everyone is missing. Geography.
Africa struggles to move goods. It is wealthy, but railroads are hard to build, due to terrain. And navigable rivers pretty much don't exist in Africa, the Nile is only navigable to the first cataract so pretty much only Egypt can use it to take goods to sea. And other large rivers either don't exist or have this issue even worse. The Livingstone Falls make the entire Congo inaccessible from the sea. China and America's rivers are infinitely more navigable, its ports deeper, and the terrain kinder to construction. Ofc other issues like corruption, warlords, HIV/AIDs, lack of national unity are more or less of an issue in various countries, but that's one I don't see talked about.
Actually I wanted to discuss the neo colonialism of the continent too. A number of former French colonies don't control their own currency, using the African Franc, made by France, while certain countries really shouldn't have their own currency rn, like Zimbabwe, but the African franc deprives those nations of economic flexibility for stability, ok for not collapsing, usually, but growth is more challenging. The French Foreign Legion also exists and is active in Africa, and they are a...mixed bag.