NEW: The global middle class shrank last year for the first time since the 1990s, with about 150 million people slipping down the economic ladder. These are some of their stories trib.al/WaawJct
About 150 million people—a number equal to the populations of the U.K. and Germany combined—tumbled down the socioeconomic ladder in 2020, with South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa seeing the biggest declines trib.al/WaawJct 
Ravi Kant Sharma with his wife and daughters in Bahadurgarh. According to Pew Research Center, India’s middle class shrank by 32 million people in 2020 trib.al/WaawJct
Francinete Alves at a supermarket in Brasilia. While her monthly salary is too high to qualify for government assistance, soaring food prices across the region have made it harder to stretch her paycheck trib.al/WaawJct
With no income to cover rent and utility bills and unwilling to dip into her savings, Mosima Kganyane paid a $271 penalty to break her lease and moved back into her family home in Johannesburg trib.al/WaawJct
Yada Pornpetrumpa sells street food at her stall on Khaosan Road in Bangkok. Since Covid-19, she figures her daily income has fallen more than 90% trib.al/WaawJct
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