One Swedish statistician is challenging people's perception of wealth and has stated that the world is better off than you think.
Hans Rosling, who is also a doctor and public speaker, discussed his thoughts on the issue with Kristian Guru Murthy during a special interview on Channel 4, uploaded on 23 November.
During the discussion, Rosling compared the wealth of countries fifty years ago, to the state of finances today and explained how each country's finances has improved over time.
Hans Rosling, Swedish statistician and doctor
Using an interactive method Rosling explained the shift between fiscally opposite states and the huge wealth gap between them, and how it is now more equally distributed.
"The big change that has occurred has not entered into people’s minds. Let me tell you what the world was like fifty years ago," he began.
"Then, the poorest people in the world lived on $1 a day and there were those [richer people] who lived on $10 and more a day.
"There were two billion people in the developing world and there were one billion in the west (North America, Europe and Japan).
"Western people had a long life and small families whereas the [developing world] had short life and large families and this was a big divide that emerged after the industrial revolution."
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"Now the world has changed and fifty years later, we have four billion more people in the world. Unfortunately one billion is still on $1 a day.
He then explained using pointers, how in the past 50 years each country has spread out along the economic scale.
"We have people better off in China, Turkey and in Brazil, this is what hasn't been understood" he said.