How many people live on $1.90/day?


Extreme poverty refers to making below the international poverty line of $1.90/day. But poverty is more than just a lack of income. It is also a lack of access to services and essential goods. The consequences of poverty are long-lasting, even generational. These include lack of access to electricity, clean water, healthcare, education and food.

The path to eliminating poverty is both short term and long term. In the short term, families can be provided with food, water and other essentials so they can focus on themselves and their families. In the long term, families can be provided with access to education and job training. Even something as fundamental as teaching farmers how to nurture their land and increase productivity can have dramatic effects.

The chart below shows how the worldwide extreme poverty rate has steadily declined over the last 40 years, as tracked by the World Bank.

Which countries have the most people living in extreme poverty?


As you explore the charts below, be sure to compare the number of people living in poverty to the percentage, since the population of each country can vary quite significantly.

Note - These statistics are not gathered every year for every country. Data here show the most recent values from the World Bank. Hover over the bar to see the year those data were collected. For the number of people living in poverty metric, we multiplied the percent living in poverty for the last measured year by the 2020 country population to get an estimate of the number of people living in poverty.

Extreme poverty trends


A core mission of the World Bank is to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity, which is why they have been tracking these metrics for years. By measuring poverty, they learn which poverty reduction strategies work and which do not. This tracking also helps governments develop sound policies that can guide their development strategy in a rapidly changing economic environment.

Explore by continent and/or country to see how extreme poverty trends have changed over time.

Source: The World Bank - World Development Indicators

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