Who are Africa's Middle Class? And Will They Help to Reduce Poverty? (Guardian)
Andy Sumner and Nancy Birdsall in the Guardian on middle classes and catalytic classes.
From the Article
One in three Africans are middle class. Or are they? A new report from the African Development Bank says: 34%, or 313 million Africans are now middle class (living on $2-$20 a day), after several decades without any change, a jump from 27% in 2000.
A similar report by the Asia Development Bank (pdf) last year found something similar in the data and noted that 56% of people in developing Asia lived at the $2-$20 a day level (all figures purchasing power parity ).
This is all good news. However, is someone living on just over $2 a day "middle class"? Two dollars is the average poverty line for developing countries, meaning you're poor or middle class – but what about in between?
