In a significant update to global poverty estimates, the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP) has released first-of-its-kind data for the years 2020-2022. This is an important release as it gives insights into economic disparity during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Bank data shows that global extreme poverty increased for the first time in decades from 2019 to 2020, rising from 8.9% in to 9.7%. This translates to an additional 73 million people living in extreme poverty. Since then, the poverty rate has declined and stood at 9.0% in 2022, or 712 million people. Still, this is 23 million more than in 2019.
Given these latest developments, illustrated by the increase in the number of people living below the international poverty line to 712 million in 2022, the world is significantly diverging from the target set within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Specifically, the goal of reducing the extreme poverty rate to below 3%—equivalent to fewer than 255 million people— by 2030 appears increasingly out of reach under current trajectories.
Read more:
- Explore our data tracker on global extreme poverty which has been updated with the latest global, regional and country data in the World Bank March 2024 data release.
- Read more about the new World Bank estimates on their Data Blog and in the complete report about the update.