May 06, 2011
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?
Read the Article