We all have a mental map of the world, and when it comes to economic might, that map has remained fairly unchanged: with a couple of notable exceptions, the South is poor and the North generally fairly wealthy.
However, we may have noticed recently that this map is getting a little out of date; everybody is aware of China’s rise, and we have realized that Mexico and Brazil aren’t doing so badly either.
But few people living in the traditionally rich North have fully taken in how dramatically the world is changing and how unrecognizable our global map soon will be: in 2000, 75 countries were listed as ‘low-income’ by the World Bank. This year, 36 countries remain on the list, and by 2020 it may have dwindled to fewer than 20.
