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This summary gathers all sixteen syllabus points across Unit 3 in lesson order. For each lesson you will find the syllabus point it covers, the key examples and case studies used, a tip for tackling the exam, and one or two possible exam questions to practise with.
Use this alongside your lesson notes, not instead of them. Click any lesson title to jump straight to the full lesson page.
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📑 Contents
Three sub-units, sixteen syllabus points, eleven lesson pages. The summary follows lesson order, not syllabus-point order, so use the headings in the left-hand outline to jump around.
- 3.1 Global trends in consumption: 3.1.1 Poverty reduction, 3.1.2 The new global middle class, 3.1.3 Ecological footprints, 3.1.4 Water, land and food, 3.1.5 Energy.
- 3.2 Impacts of changing trends: 3.2.1 Nexus Thinking, 3.2.2 Water, food and energy security (the syllabus-required country contrast), 3.2.3 Recycling and waste.
- 3.3 Resource stewardship: 3.3.1 Divergent thinking, 3.3.2 Circular economy, 3.3.3 UN SDGs.
3.1 Global trends in consumption
🏚️ 3.1.1 Poverty reduction
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Syllabus point 3.1.1 Global and regional/continental progress towards poverty reduction, including the growth of the 'new global middle class' (this lesson covers the poverty reduction half; the 'new global middle class' is covered in 3.1.2 below).
Examples used
- Nine-country comparison (Australia, China, Iceland, India, Morocco, Niger, UK, USA, Venezuela) using World Bank income classifications and the $3 a day (2021 PPP, Purchasing Power Parity) poverty headcount ratio. Use these as ready-made contrasts: high-income low-poverty (Australia, Iceland, UK, USA), middle-income with sharp recent change (China, Morocco), low-income high-poverty (Niger), and complicated cases (India's scale, Venezuela's crisis-driven reversal).
- Global poverty trend since 1950 showing the strong long-run downward trend, sharpest between roughly 1990 and 2015, driven mainly by China and then India.
- Regional/continental progress: East Asia and Pacific has cut extreme poverty fastest; sub-Saharan Africa remains the region where most of the world's extreme poor now live.
- Economics Explained 'Why are some countries poor and others rich' [28 June 2020] for the causal explanations behind the patterns (institutions, geography, history, trade).
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Tip for the exam: be specific about which poverty line you're using. The World Bank's current extreme poverty line is $3 a day (2021 PPP); older sources and older exam mark schemes still cite $2.15 or $1.90 a day.
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Possible exam questions
- Describe what is meant by extreme poverty. [2]
- Explain two reasons why progress in reducing extreme poverty has been faster in some regions than others. [4]
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📈 3.1.2 The growth of the 'new global middle class'