Worldwide extreme poverty has reached unprecedented low levels, marking a significant global achievement over recent decades. This remarkable decline was highlighted by economist Dina D. Pomeranz, who stated in a recent tweet, "Extreme poverty worldwide has never been as low as it is today, and it's never fallen as fast as in recent decades." Pomeranz emphasized the need for "more facts and less ideology" in discussions surrounding this critical issue.
Data from the World Bank corroborates this trend, indicating that from 1990 to 2025, the number of people living in extreme poverty decreased from approximately 2.3 billion to 831 million. This figure is based on the World Bank's revised international poverty line of $3.00 per day, updated in June 2025. The substantial reduction was largely fueled by robust and broad-based economic growth, particularly observed in East Asia and South Asia.
Despite these historical gains, the pace of global poverty reduction has slowed considerably over the last decade. This deceleration is attributed to a confluence of interconnected crises, including sluggish economic growth, high levels of debt, the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing conflicts, and severe weather-related shocks. These challenges have disproportionately impacted low-income countries, hindering further progress.
Extreme poverty is now increasingly concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and regions affected by conflict and fragility. In 2024, Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 67 percent of the world's extremely poor population, despite representing only 16 percent of the global population. The World Bank notes that at the current rate of progress, eradicating extreme poverty could take decades, with projections suggesting that 8.9 percent of the global population could still be living in extreme poverty by 2030.
Dina D. Pomeranz is a respected economist and Professor of Public Economics at the University of Zurich, with a research focus on public finance and development economics. Her work often involves empirical studies in developing countries, lending academic weight to her observations on poverty trends. The World Bank's adjustment of the international poverty line from $2.15 to $3.00 per day in June 2025 has also led to an upward revision of extreme poverty estimates, now including an additional 125 million people, reflecting a higher threshold rather than an actual increase in global impoverishment.
