More than one billion Asians will join global middle class by 2030: Study

Bangladesh set to rise up the rankings fastest; India and China to add about three-quarters of a billion members between them.

More than 1 billion Asians are set to join the global middle class by 2030, according to a new study that predicts the pandemic will prove just a temporary pause in the world economy’s great demographic shift. 

The middle class--households where per-capita spending is between $11 and $110 a day--amounts to some 3.75 billion people this year, according to the World Data Lab. That cohort is projected to keep growing through 2030 with India and China, the most populous countries, adding about three-quarters of a billion members between them.

The other biggest contributors are also in Asia. They include countries