Please note , from the articleAlmost unnoticed , the world has reduced poverty , increased incomes , and improved health more than at any time in history . In fact , never before have so many people , in so many poor countries , made so much progress in reducing poverty , increasing incomes , improving health , reducing conflict and war , and spreading democracy . But starting in the mid 1990 s , growth rates began to rise . By 2015 average incomes in developing countries had almost doubled after controlling for inflation , and that figure excludes China . Quite literally hundreds of millions of people poor , middleclass , or wealthy in dozens of developing countries have much higher incomes than they did 20 years ago . Importantly , the benefits of growth have been relatively widespread , and not just concentrated among the rich . Roughly speaking , inequality has worsened in about onethird of developing countries , remained about the same in another onethird , and improved somewhat in the other third .