We've taken a major conceptual step. Dr Jolly estimates that a calculation of a comparable figure today would show an even wider discrepancy. Between 1990 and 1998, per capita income fell in 50 countries, only one of them in the 29 developed states which make up the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Some progress The national disparity between rich and poor is similarly widening in many countries, the report says. In Russia the gulf is dramatic, but even in countries not undergoing great social changes, such as Britain, Sweden and the United States, there gap has been steadily widening for 20 years.
Progress has been made in some areas, it says.
In addition, 100m children are estimated to be living or working on the streets and 1.2m women and girls under 18 are trafficked for prostitution each year. Problems exist in the world's richest countries as well as the poorest, the UN says. In the OECD as a whole, 8m children are undernourished, and in the US 40m people are not covered by health insurance and one in five adults is functionally illiterate. Britain remains 10th in the UN's human development index, which measures literacy and life expectancy in addition to living standards. The report calls for bold new approaches to achieving economic and other human rights for all.