Nineteen per cent of Mexico’s population lives in extreme poverty, which would be living on less than one dollar a day. With a population of about 106 million that would mean about 20 million people are in extreme poverty…but that doesn’t include moderate poverty. Yes that’s right, we must distinguish between levels of poverty. The moderately poor make up another 40-50 percent…or approximately 45 million people. That’s a large number living in some type of poverty.

Mexico comes in at number 53 on the Human Development Index. The HDI is conducted by the United Nations to rank countries based on income levels, and helath and education opportunities. Mexico is 53 out of 177, that means Mexico is better than most...and it aint good!

The top ten in ascending order are; Netherlands, Switzerland, United States, Japan, Canada (6th), Sweden, Ireland, Australia, Iceland, and at number one is Norway.

Some countries doing better than Mexico that you may not expect; Cuba, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Kuwait.

Countries ranked worse than Mexico were some huge economic powers like Russia (65), China (81), and India (126).

In dead last was Niger.

There are 1.2 billion people in the world living in extreme poverty. About the same live in moderate poverty...that´s half the population of the world living in some type of poverty.

Poverty is around every corner here in Mexico, and Mexico is better than most.