11 Signs The World Is Making Real Progress Against Global Poverty

Proof that there's been HUGE advances in the fight against poverty. We're just as ecstatic as you are.

1. People are living longer

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Thanks to improvements in health, life expectancy around the world has improved dramatically in the past few decades: it was an average of 64 years in 1990, and 70 years in 2011.

2. More people around the world can read

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In 2011, the global adult literacy rate was 84.1 percent, and the rate for youth was 89.5 percent.

3. We're winning the fight against malaria

Since the year 2000, worldwide malaria death rates fell by 45 percent in all age groups.

4. Tuberculosis is becoming a thing of the past

The rate of TB incidence has been reduced by 45 percent since 1990.

5. Worldwide poverty is down

In 2000, 33 percent of the world population was living in poverty. Today, it's 21 percent. While that means more than 1 in 5 people live in poverty, it's still enormous progress—and it means that the world has effectively halved its poverty rate in just 20 years.

6. India will be polio-free in 2014

There have been no new cases of polio reported in India since January 13, 2011. If no new cases are reported, India will be certified polio-free in early 2014.

7. We're vaccinating more people than ever

An estimated 450,000 children die from rotavirus-caused diarrhea every year – but an organization called the GAVI Alliance is bringing a vaccine to fight it to 30 of the world's poorest countries by 2015.

8. Ethiopia is doing well

Ethiopia was once the poster-child (literally) for problems of malnutrition, health, and other issues. Today, Ethiopia proves that seemingly intractable problems can be solved through hard work and community outreach.

9. We're gaining ground against HIV

Deaths from AIDS-related causes are going down. According to UNAIDS, the number of people dying from AIDS-related causes each year has declined from a high of roughly 2.3 million in 2005 to roughly 1.6 million in 2012.

10. We're on track to halve hunger by 2015

According to the UN, since 1990, "The global number of hungry people declined by 132 million...or from 18.6 percent to 12.5 percent of the world's population, and from 23.2 percent to 14.9 percent in developing countries."

11. Guinea worm is set to be the first fully eradicated human disease since smallpox

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Guinea Worm, a water-borne disease, is down 49 percent since 2011. We don't have final numbers yet for 2013, but there have only been 144 cases tallied so far in 2013. Back in 1986, 3.5 million people were infected. This is an incredible drop, and means 2014 could be the year we eradicate Guinea Worm.

See what a difference a decade can make in the fight against global poverty. View The ONE Campaign's interactive timeline of their work since 2004.

Special thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Mental Floss for the post.