Breakthrough: For the First Time in History, Most of Humanity Has Escaped Poverty

Bourgeoisie of the World, Unite! As of last week, more than half of the world is middle class.

by Oliver Wiseman
October 12, 2018

The most important piece of news in recent weeks has nothing to do with Brexit or Brett Kavanaugh. It didn’t make the front page and it did not cause social media to explode. It was a milestone that represented not a great leap forward, but hundreds of millions of steps in the right direction.

I am referring to the fact that, as of last week, more than half of the world is middle class.

Homi Kharas and Kristofer Hamel, two of the researchers behind the work, done under the auspices of the World Data Lab, characterise the global middle class as having enough discretionary income to buy consumer durables like fridges and motorcycles; being able to spend money on entertainment like trips to the cinema; and being fairly confident that they can weather an economic shock without falling back into extreme poverty.

The more precise measure they use is earnings of between $11 and $110 per day on a 2011 purchasing power parity basis.

The researchers divide the world…