The portion of the world’s population living in extreme poverty has fallen from 43.6% in 1990 to 9.9% today. Lifespans have risen, and a lower fraction of the world is hungry.
The Doomslayer explains that the World Bank revised poverty estimates by “moving to a higher poverty line: $3.00 per day at 2021 purchasing power parities (PPPs), up from the previous benchmark of $2.15 per day at 2017 PPPs. This higher threshold has raised the overall poverty level, but the trend remains incredibly optimistic. In 1990, under the new measurement, around 43.6 percent of humanity lived in extreme poverty. In 2025, that’s expected to fall to 9.9 percent.”
The World Bank explains:
Global poverty estimates up to 2023 were updated today…First, the update brings new survey data for several country-years, including important updates to data from India; second, it includes the adoption of the 2021 Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs); and third, based on the new PPPs and new survey data, including new national poverty lines, the update revises the global poverty lines.
As a result of these combined changes, the global extreme poverty rate in 2022 is revised up from 9.0 to 10.5 percent, corresponding to an increase in the number of individuals living below the international poverty line from 713 to 838 million…
The nowcast suggests a modest decline in the global extreme poverty rate from 10.5 percent in 2022 to 9.9 percent in 2025. Based on the latest data, the South Asia region experienced the most significant decline in extreme poverty between 2022 and 2025. Conversely, the Middle East and North Africa was the only region to experience an increase in poverty during this period, up from 8.5 percent in 2022 to 9.4 percent in 2025.
Poverty has fallen rapidly in the world’s most mountainous country, which is 98.8% mountains and has many remote areas that are hard to reach.
Poverty has declined in Latin America, except in socialist dictatorships like Venezuela.
Global life expectancy has hit an all-time high.
