The report finds that although average human development improved significantly across all regions from 1990 to 2015, one in three people worldwide continue to live in low levels of human development, as measured by the Human Development Index.

This is a concern in developed countries too, where poverty and exclusion are also a challenge, with over 300 million people – including more than one-third of all children – living in relative poverty.

The report shows that in almost every country, several groups face disadvantages that often overlap and reinforce each other, increasing vulnerability, widening the progress gap across generations, and making it harder to catch up as the world moves on.

Highlights

• One in three people worldwide continue to live in low levels of human development, as measured by the Human Development Index
• More than 250 million people in the world face discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity
• In 100 countries, women are legally excluded from some jobs because of their gender