Dictionary.com defines poverty as “the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; the condition of being poor.” It defines “poor” as “having little or no money, goods, or other means of support.”

Poverty means not having enough money. Right?

According to the World Bank, if you’re living on $1.90 a day or less, you’re living in extreme poverty. More than 750 million people fall into this category. But you can make more than $1.90 a day and still be poor. The World Bank has drawn two other lines.

• If you live in a lower-middle-income country, like Egypt, India, and the Philippines, and make less than $3.20 a day you are considered relatively poor.
• If you live in an upper-middle-income country, like Brazil, Jamaica, and South Africa, and make less than $5.50 a day you are considered relatively poor.

Pause for a moment to reflect that eliminating extreme poverty is one of the original United Nations’ Sustainable Goals for 2030. We will still have a long way to go.

The UN has created a Human Development Index, the result of a complex calculation of the multiple dimensions of poverty that must be overcome. Not unexpectedly, the greatest measurable amount of poverty continues to exist in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Knowing that poverty exists is one thing. Knowing the extent to which it exists is another. There are several ways to view the data but here we will simply look at the ranking of the South Asian countries where, according to Gospel for Asia, the need is greater than most can imagine.