The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have produced the most successful anti-poverty movement in history and will serve as the jumping-off point for the new sustainable development agenda to be adopted this year.

The MDG Report 2015 found that the 15-year effort to achieve the eight aspirational goals set out in the Millennium Declaration in 2000 was largely successful across the globe, while acknowledging shortfalls that remain. The data and analysis presented in the report show that with targeted interventions, sound strategies, adequate resources and political will, even the poorest can make progress.

The final MDG report confirms that goal-setting can lift millions of people out of poverty, empower women and girls, improve health and well-being, and provide vast new opportunities for better lives.

Highlights

• The number of people now living in extreme poverty has declined by more than half, falling from 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015.
• The number of people in the working middle class—living on more than $4 a day—nearly tripled between 1991 and 2015.
• The proportion of undernourished people in the developing regions dropped by almost half since 1990.
• The number of out-of-school children of primary school age worldwide fell by almost half, to an estimated 57 million in 2015, down from 100 million in 2000.
• Gender parity in primary school has been achieved in the majority of countries.
• The mortality rate of children under-five was cut by more than half since 1990.
• Since 1990, maternal mortality fell by 45 percent worldwide.
• Over 6.2 million malaria deaths have been averted between 2000 and 2015.
• New HIV infections fell by approximately 40 percent between 2000 and 2013.
• By June 2014, 13.6 million people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) globally, an immense increase from just 800,000 in 2003.
• Between 2000 and 2013, tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis and treatment interventions saved an estimated 37 million lives.
• Worldwide 2.1 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation.
• Globally, 147 countries have met the MDG drinking water target, 95 countries have met the MDG sanitation target and 77 countries have met both.
• Official development assistance from developed countries increased 66 percent in real terms from 2000 and 2014, reaching $135.2 billion.