10. Stockholm, Sweden

Sweden’s capital and most populous city, Stockholm, is renowned for its culture and

it is also in the top 10 regions in Europe by GDP per capita. While many people think

Sweden is a socialist country, it isn’t, but it does have socialist leanings. It is

also known for its stable economy, for example, during the European debt crisis, Sweden was

returning to a surplus, when other European countries were going into more debt.

Yet, even Stockholm with its strong social programs struggles with poverty. In fact,

between 2001 and 2011, the poverty rate rose from about 8-9 percent to 15 percent. In Sweden,

more than one in 10 children, approximately 220,000, live in poverty. Another major problem

that Stockholm is facing is that they also have had an influx of Romanian immigrants

who have made their way to Sweden who live in slums and panhandle. Unfortunately, this

is becoming an increasingly large problem in Stockholm and they are unsure of a way

to fix it.

9. London, England

London, England has a long, rich history and is considered a cultural capital of the world.

It has the highest concentration of secondary schools in Europe, including some of the world’s

most renowned universities like Oxford and the London School of Economics. It has a number

of notable landmarks, museums and art galleries. So while it is a very cultured city, it has

a serious problem; 28 percent of its population is living in poverty.

There are a number of factors that contribute to London’s high poverty rates, including

the cost of apartment rentals. In outer London, the average cost to rent an apartment is $1,400

per month, while inner London it is about $1,800. There are also about a million people

between the ages of 16 and 24 who are unemployed. It has been suggested that increasing the

minimum wage and creating affordable housing could help lower poverty rates.

8. Seoul, South Korea

Founded over 2,000 years ago, Seoul currently has the fourth highest GDP out of all metropolises

in the world. It is a technologically savvy city that is home to some of the biggest electronics

and technological companies in the world. They have invested millions in infrastructure,

including the world’s biggest subway system that is equipped with Wi-Fi.

Problems with poverty first became prevalent in 1988 when Seoul hosted the Olympics and

city officials forced the homeless to shantytowns on the outskirts of the city. One of the shantytowns,

Guryong, is a short distance from Gangnam, which is Seoul’s wealthiest neighborhood.

A lot of the people who live in the shantytowns are seniors in their 70s and 80s, because

Seoul has a major problem with supporting their senior citizens. The seniors, who helped

Seoul rise to the economic powerhouse that it is today, often live in poverty. In fact,

over half the seniors in Seoul are poor, which is the highest in the industrial world. The

reason is because there was not much of a social security system put in place in South

Korea because it was customary for children to look after their parents. However, in the

past 15 years, that notion has changed drastically. 15 years ago, 90 percent of children thought

they should look after their parents, and in 2014 that number had shrunk to just 37

percent, leaving many millions of seniors without any social support.

7. Silicon Valley, United States of America

Silicon Valley is an area in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area and encompasses

Santa Clara Valley and parts of San Jose. Silicon Valley is the world’s biggest tech

hub and home to some of the world’s biggest companies including Apple, Cisco, Facebook

and Google. It also accounts for one-third of all venture capital in the United States.

Needless to say, Silicon Valley is booming with business.

Yet, they also have an incredible problem with poverty. The poverty stems from the problem

that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, which has made the cost

of housing skyrocket. In 2015, the median rental list price is just under $2,000 a month

and the median house price is $550,000. But housing isn’t the only factor; transportation,

food and other necessities are also more expensive in Silicon Valley. For a family of four to

cover all their expenses for a year, it is about $90,000. As a result, people are forced

to live in garages and in tent cities.

6. Seattle, United States of America

According to one study, Seattle, Washington, is the best city for employment opportunities

in the United States in 2015. It is also considered one of the best American cities for its rich

culture. It’s a wealthy city; it has the sixth highest income median in America. However,

one of the major problems with Seattle is that it has a growing problem with wealth

inequality. Only people in the top five percent are having their salaries increased, while

the bottom 40 percent hasn’t had much of an increase in wages in some time, which is

a problem for the bottom 40 percent because the cost of living continues to increase.

Due to the wealth gap, Seattle struggles with poverty and homelessness. With the median

rental apartment price of $1,284, people struggle to find an adequate residence. On a night

in January 2014, the city counted 2,300 people sleeping in public places or in vehicles.

That doesn’t include the people in the 1,700 beds in shelters. With the amount of homelessness

in the city, three major tent cities have popped up and the mayor is looking at ways

to make them legal so that the city can regulate them.

5. Toronto, Canada

Toronto is the most populated city in Canada and it is famous around the world for its

multiculturalism. It is the commercial capital of Canada and according to the Economist’s

Intelligence Unit and the Mercer Quality of Living Survey, it is one of the best cities

in the world to live in.

Like most big cities around the world, Toronto has a horrible problem with a high cost of

living. In fact, in the same report issued by the Economist Intelligence Unit that said

it was the best city to live in, it also placed Toronto in 70th out of 113 for cost of living.

Due to that high cost, in 2014, Toronto was tied for highest child poverty rates in Canada,

with 29 percent of children, which is about 149,000 children, live in low-income families.

Out of the 140 neighbors in Toronto, 40 percent of them have child poverty rates of 30 percent

or higher.

4. Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai is the shining beacon of wealth in the Middle East. It is an oil rich country, known

for pouring money into elaborate projects like the world’s tallest building, Burj

Khalifa, which cost $1.5 billion. There are also man-made islands called the Palm Islands,

which cost at least $25 billion (only one of the three is finished). It is a country

famous for its luxuries, expensive dining and one of its biggest attractions is shopping

malls.

While they poured a ton of money into the construction of the city, Dubai has a major

problem with poverty. This became more prevalent after the financial crash of 2008. The problem

is 99 percent of people who live in Dubai weren’t born there and don’t have citizenship,

so they are exploited. In fact, all those major construction projects listed above were

built using mostly slave labor of immigrants from India and Pakistan.

3. Vancouver, Canada

The picturesque coastal city of Vancouver is often cited as the best city to live in

within Canada, North America and even the world. It is an incredibly green city with

a vibrant economy. It is often called “Hollywood North” because of how many movies are shot

there due to its variety of scenery available; it has mountains, forests, urban areas and

it is on an ocean.

It also is suffering from a high cost of living crisis. It is the most expensive city in Canada

with the median cost of a house being over $700,000. In fact, it is just behind Hong

Kong in terms of least affordable housing in the world. Due to the high cost of living,

one in 10 people live in poverty, which is about 72,000 people.

Vancouver also has one of the poorest neighborhoods in Canada, which is the Downtown Eastside.

The neighborhood is the cheapest in the city and is rife with drug dealers and prostitutes

since the 1950s. Currently, there are approximately 18,500 people that live in the two-kilometer

(0.6 miles) stretch of downtown. It is estimated that about $1 million per day is being pumped

into social programs for the Downtown Eastside, but it has not made much of a difference.

2. Tokyo, Japan

Japan’s capital city, Tokyo, has the highest GDP in the world. It has 51 Fortune Global

500 companies, which is the most of any city in the world. At the end of 2012, it also

had 461,000 millionaires, meaning that Tokyo has more millionaires than any other city.

Despite being the wealthiest city in the world, Tokyo has a seemingly unseen poverty problem

and poverty numbers are hard to find. There is no begging and the homeless generally try

to stay hidden, but Tokyo has its share of poverty. It is estimated that out of the 34

countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Japan has the

sixth worst relative poverty rate. One group that is definitely having problems is single

parent families. The relative poverty rate for them is over 50 percent. It is the only

country in the world where being employed doesn’t reduce the overall poverty rate

for single parents. Meaning that more than half of the single parents in Tokyo cannot

afford their lifestyle.

1. New York City, United States

New York City is one of the most famous cities in the world. It is a leader in arts and culture.

It is one of the most visited cities and has numerous attractions like the Broadway District,

Times Square, The Statue of Liberty and Central Park, just to name a few. It is the home to

Wall Street and NYC has the second highest GDP for a metropolitan area. It is also the

city with the second most millionaires, being home to about 389,000 of them.

New York City is also very well known for having an incredible amount of poverty, mainly

owing to the fact that it has a long history of having some of the highest rent prices

in the world. Unfortunately for New Yorkers, between 2000 and 2012, the rental median rose

by 75 percent, which means that as of 2013, the average rate to rent an apartment was

$3,017. The result is that 45.6 percent of people who live in New York live near or below

the poverty line. Even worse, during the winter of 2015, which was the coldest winter on record

for NYC, homelessness hit an all time high of 67,000 people. What’s interesting is

that 2010, the federal government put more money and resources into trying to help the

homeless, but in 2010, there were just over 53,000 homeless people in New York City. So

even with the government trying to combat homelessness, the rates in New York City still

rose.