More than one billion people have been brought out of extreme poverty over the past 15 years, according to the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) report released on Tuesday.
The MDGs report is one that shares the current status of eight main goals that the United Nations set in the year 2000 to improve eradicate extreme poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, and reduce child mortality, among other goals.
"The report confirms that the global efforts to achieve the Goals have saved millions of lives and improved conditions for millions more around the world," UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon said.
According to the report, great strides have been made in bringing lives out of poverty. Almost 50 percent of the population in the developing world lived on less than $1.25 per day in 1990, which dropped to 14 percent today. Worldwide, about 1.9 million lived in poverty in 1990, and today, the number dropped to 836 million, the report says.
Improvements in China and India played a significant role in those statistics, the report added. China saw a significant drop in the extreme poverty rate from 61 percent in 1990, to 4 percent in 2015. South Asia also saw a significant decrease, from 52 percent in 1990 to 17 percent in 2015.
Reduction of child mortality also saw huge strides over the past 15 years. The rate of reduction of under-five mortality has more than tripled globally, the report said, and the rate is even more significant in sub-Sarahan Africa, where the annual rate of reduction of under-five mortality was five times faster between 2005 to 2013 than during 1990 to 1995.
More children have access to primary education today -- the percentage of children enrolled in primary school in developing regions increased eight points, from 83 percent in 2000 to 91 percent in 2015. Again, development in this goal saw most improvement in sub-Sarahan Africa. From 1990 to 2000, the region saw an 8 percent increase of enrollment in primary schools -- a rate which increased to a 20 percent rate between 2000 to 2015.
The report also pointed out "significant gaps" that exist in progress for other areas.
"Progress has not reached everyone," Moon said. "Too many people have been left behind, particularly the poorest and those disadvantaged because of their sex, age, disability, or geographic location."
The report found women are continuing to face inequality in the work force, for example. Women earn 24 percent less than men worldwide, the report found, and the ratio of women to men in poor households actually saw an increase, from 108 women to every 100 men in 1997, to 117 women to every 100 men in 2012.
Recent international conflicts also "forced almost 60 million people to abandon their homes -- the highest level of displacement since the end of the Second World War, with staggering consequences for human development," said Moon.
The United Nations stated that the goals set for the next 15 years will be based on these gaps that have been found in this year's report.
