The following countries are all tied for having the most people living below the poverty line. All of them have an estimated 80% of the population living in poverty, and all have this extreme poverty for a number of reasons. Wanting to solve and end world poverty, or at least get more people above the poverty line, is a noble goal, and a common one, but the variety of reasons for the rampant poverty emphasizes just how difficult this problem really is. Poverty clearly cannot just be solved by spreading resources; instead, most of these countries require a buildup of infrastructure and a complete renovation of the economy.

1. Liberia

Liberia has had a history of poverty, all the way back from its founding. In the early 1990s, though official export was down, illicit diamond trade was up and the country began to more or less produce. These were blood diamonds, however, and the UN eventually put a worldwide moratorium on Liberian diamond exports, effectively shutting down the trade, and plunging most of the country back below the poverty line. This ban was lifted in 2007, but the country has only started to begin its recovery. It has the second highest unemployment rate of any country in the world (85%), meaning that most of its people live well below the poverty line. The value of its imports are about five times that of its exports, meaning that most of the country will likely stay below the poverty line.

2. Haiti

Haiti is the least developed country in the Americas, which has both contributed and been a product of its poverty. Approximately two-thirds of the population works in small scale farming, though this farming produces less than a third of the country’s GDP, suggesting that most, if not all of these people live below the poverty line. More than a third of the country’s budget is contributed by foreign aid, mostly by the United States. In addition, Haiti recently had a coup that was partly inspired by the desperate poverty levels (also, the US retracted funding under the leader over disagreements), however the coup, while restoring a new administration that brought back funding, did not otherwise help Haiti’s majority population climb above the poverty line. Moreover, the coup reduced tourism greatly, which also contributed to increase the poverty levels.

3. Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has, as of late, been ruled by Robert Mugabe who has built a reputation for himself of terrible mismanagement of the economy. In the 1980s and 1990s, the country’s GDP grew fairly steadily each year. in 1998, however, the country became in involved in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s war, which drained all of its resources, plunging most of the country below the poverty line. Since then, reports have come out frequently, detailing the preposterous economy. In 1998, the inflation rate was 32% (in itself fairly large). By 2008, the inflation rate had risen to 231,000,000% annually. The government contributed to this poverty crisis by printing money which recently increased to include a $100,000,000,000 bill. In July of 2009, succumbing to the problems of its currency, Zimbabwe officially switched to the US dollar, along with allowing a number of other stable currencies to be officially traded. Immediately, inflation dropped to below zero, though much of the country has yet to recover from the repeated laws against start-up companies and remains below the poverty line.

4. Chad

More than 80% of Chad’s population relies on farming and livestock, not for income but as subsistence farming, keeping them well below the poverty line. In the early 1908s, a civil war ravaged the country, crippling its transportation infrastructure. There are relatively few paved roads in Chad, and water is exceedingly scarce. In its cities, only 2% of the population have access to basic sanitation, and less than half have access to potable water, giving an indication both of the extreme poverty and disorganization of the country.