As described in Poverty, Health and the Environment , poverty and inequity are two critical determinants of human health. Despite economic progress, it appears that the health problems linked with economic stagnation, poverty, and environmental degradation are likely to continue well into the future. Global economic growth has failed to alleviate poverty for a large share of the world's people. Despite an overall rising global economy, the absolute scale of poverty continues to grow. Large parts of the developing world have been bypassed by the past three decades of economic growth.
Poverty continues to be concentrated in rural areas.
Many experts believe that urban poverty will soon overtake rural poverty in significance. The highest rates of urban growth are in Africa and Southeast Asia. But statistical averages hide the health impacts associated with poverty in urban slums or squatter shantytowns where growing proportions up to one half in some cases of urban populations live. The links between urban poverty and health are illustrated by the resurgence of tuberculosis among the poor in cities of the developed world as well. Values are in 1993 International dollars using purchasing power parity.