There is also the expectation that with economic growth comes a growing middle class that will expect and will spend on Western style healthcare. It is our experience that members of the middle and more affluent class in developing countries are clients of private healthcare providers. Nevertheless, the growth of the middle class is a reality.
The United Nations (UN) describes it as a historic shift not seen for 150 years. Throughout history, the vast majority of people in the now most affluent emerging markets (India, Chiba and Brazil) lived in desperate poverty, living on a dollar a day or less. Yet these countries are undergoing a remarkable transformation, one that is unfortunately not shared by most of the population. UN statistics indicate that 1.8 billion people made up the worldwide middle class in 2009; this is expected to grow to 3.2 in billion people 2020 and 4.9 billion people in 2030. By 2030, Asia will be the home of 3 billion middle class people. It would be 10 times more than North America and five times more than Europe. By 2050, they are forecast to account for nearly half of world output, far surpassing the G7.
