Final answer:
The annual income of the world's poorest poor is defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.25 a day, which is less than the annual cost of keeping a pet cat in the U.S. This threshold of absolute poverty indicates a severe inability to afford basic needs. An estimated 689 million people live under the $ 1.90-a-day poverty line set by the World Bank.
Step-by-step explanation:
The annual income of an individual classified as the world's poorest is defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.25 a day. This measure, formerly referred to as absolute poverty, indicates that those living under this threshold do not have enough income to cover basic needs, such as food and shelter. Moreover, the World Bank has set another poverty line at $1.90/day per person, which also reflects a state of severe poverty as described in the text above. Given these standards, it is clear that the answer to how much the annual income of the world's poorest is comes closest to:
a. less than the annual cost of keeping a pet cat in the U.S.
For context, considering that 689 million people live on less than $1.90 a day and that 24.1 percent of the world lived on less than $3.20 per day in 2017, an individual living on such an income would have an extremely difficult time affording even the most modest of lifestyles. In the developing world, 17 percent of people lived at or below $1.25 a day as of 2011, and close to 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day, which again is significantly below the cited U.S. poverty line of $17,916 annually for a family of three. This juxtaposition illustrates the profound disparity between the poorest in low-income countries and the poverty standard in the United States.