Roughly 839 million people were living in extreme poverty in 2024, according to the World Bank’s revised estimates, a number that ticked down only marginally to a projected 808 million, or about 9.9% of the world’s population, in 2025. More than three-quarters of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa or in countries affected by conflict and fragility. That geographic concentration, not global population growth itself, is the central fact shaping where poverty persists in the mid-2020s.
Where Does Global Poverty Stand Today
The World Bank revised its international poverty line in June 2025, raising it from $2.15 per person per day (2017 purchasing-power parity) to $3.00 per person per day (2021 PPP), a methodological update that better reflects current household consumption costs. Under the revised line, extreme poverty affected an estimated 10.3% of the world’s population in 2024, roughly 839 million people, an upward revision from earlier estimates of around 10.0%. The World Bank’s nowcast projects this fell only slightly to about 9.9-10.1% in 2025.
The revision does not change the broader story: the world made enormous progress against extreme poverty in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, cutting the extreme poverty rate dramatically, but that progress has slowed to what the World Bank has called a near-standstill during the 2020s.
Where Global Poverty Is Concentrated
Sub-Saharan Africa now accounts for the clear majority of the world’s extreme poor. Extreme poverty affected an estimated 46.0% of the region’s population in 2024, and the region is home to the fastest-growing share of the global extreme-poor population even as poverty rates fall in most of the rest of the world.
The Middle East and North Africa region, which the World Bank’s updated classification now groups with Afghanistan and Pakistan, has the second-highest regional poverty rate, with roughly one in eight people living below the line.
| Region | Extreme Poverty Rate (2024-25, approx.) | Share of Global Extreme Poor |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-Saharan Africa | ~46% | Majority (well over half) |
| Middle East & North Africa (incl. Afghanistan, Pakistan) | ~13% (roughly 1 in 8) | Second largest |
| South Asia (excl. above) | Lower, falling | Declining share |
| East Asia & Pacific | Very low | Small, falling share |
| Latin America & Caribbean | Low-moderate | Small share |
Figures are approximate, based on World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform data using the $3.00/day (2021 PPP) international poverty line, updated June and September 2025.
Poverty also has a strong rural skew globally. Nearly three-quarters of people living in extreme poverty reside in rural communities, and while extreme poverty has declined in both rural and urban areas, the sharpest declines have come in rural areas, where the rate fell from nearly 27% in 2013 to about 17% in 2023, compared with urban poverty’s more modest fall from about 8% to 6% over the same period.
Population Growth and Poverty: Is There a Direct Link
The relationship between population growth and poverty is not a simple cause-and-effect story. Population growth can affect poverty through several channels, including larger household sizes stretching limited income further, rising demand on public services like schools and clinics, and a growing labor supply that outpaces job creation in fragile economies.
But population growth is not, on its own, a proven direct cause of poverty; many of the fastest-growing populations historically have also seen substantial poverty reduction when paired with strong economic growth, as East and Southeast Asia demonstrated over recent decades. The more consistent pattern is that poverty persists where population growth combines with weak economic growth, conflict, or fragile governance, rather than population growth alone.
Why Poverty Can Persist Even When Economies Grow
Economic growth does not automatically translate into poverty reduction. Income inequality can concentrate the gains of growth among a small share of the population. Low productivity, especially in agriculture, which employs a large share of the poor in many low-income countries, limits how much growth reaches the poorest households.
Informality, meaning work outside formal contracts and social protections, leaves many workers without a safety net even when they are employed. Conflict and weak institutions can stall or reverse growth entirely, which is why fragile and conflict-affected states now account for a growing share of the global extreme poor.
Fertility, Household Size, and Poverty
The relationship between fertility, household size, and poverty runs in both directions rather than a single causal line. Larger households can mean income is stretched across more people, which correlates with poverty in many contexts, but poverty itself is also associated with higher fertility, since access to education, healthcare, and family planning services tends to be more limited in poorer households and regions.
This bidirectional relationship makes it difficult to treat fertility reduction alone as a poverty solution; addressing the underlying drivers of both, including education access, healthcare, and economic opportunity, tends to be more effective than targeting fertility in isolation.
Rural Poverty vs Urban Poverty
Rural poverty remains substantially more widespread than urban poverty globally, driven by lower agricultural productivity, weaker infrastructure, and more limited access to services like electricity, clean water, and healthcare. Urban poverty, while lower on average, often manifests differently, concentrated in informal settlements with inadequate housing, sanitation, and job security. As urbanization continues, with the share of the world’s population living in urban areas projected to keep rising, the balance of where poverty is concentrated is expected to gradually shift, though rural poverty is likely to remain disproportionately high for years to come.
Youthful Populations and the Poverty Challenge
Countries with young, fast-growing populations, concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, face a dual challenge: a potential demographic dividend if enough productive jobs can be created for the growing generation, or persistent or worsening poverty if job creation, education, and infrastructure investment fail to keep pace. The outcome depends less on population growth itself than on whether governments and economies can convert that growth into productive employment.
Poverty Reduction Has Slowed
The pace of global poverty reduction has slowed substantially since the 2010s, and the World Bank’s revised 2025 estimates indicate that roughly 9% of the world’s population could still be living in extreme poverty by 2030, far short of the Sustainable Development Goal target of eradicating extreme poverty by that year and further from the World Bank’s own earlier goal of reducing it to 3% or below.
The World Bank has described the 2020s as a potential “lost decade” for global poverty reduction, reflecting the combined effects of slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, economic instability, climate-related shocks, and persistently sluggish growth in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
| Year | Extreme Poverty Rate (approx.) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | ~38% (under earlier $2.15 line methodology) | Historical baseline |
| 2019 | ~8-9% (under earlier line) | Pre-pandemic low |
| 2024 | 10.3% (under revised $3.00 line) | Upward revision from methodology change |
| 2025 (nowcast) | ~9.9-10.1% | Projected |
| 2030 (projected) | ~9% | World Bank projection under current trends |
Figures reflect the World Bank’s June and September 2025 methodology updates using the $3.00/day (2021 PPP) international poverty line; earlier-year comparisons use the prior $2.15 (2017 PPP) line and are not perfectly comparable due to the revision.
What Demographic Change Could Mean for Future Poverty
Africa’s continued population growth, set against aging and population decline elsewhere, means the geographic center of global poverty is likely to remain concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa for the foreseeable future unless the region can accelerate job creation, education access, and infrastructure investment fast enough to outpace its population growth. Urbanization, migration, and continued education expansion could all help shift outcomes, but none operate on a timeline fast enough to change the picture dramatically before 2030.
What Actually Helps Reduce Poverty
Evidence from the countries that have achieved the fastest, most durable poverty reduction, including much of East and Southeast Asia over recent decades, points consistently toward broad-based economic growth, investment in education and health, expanding access to formal employment, and infrastructure development, rather than population control measures, as the most effective and evidence-supported paths to reducing poverty at scale.
Key Findings
- An estimated 839 million people lived in extreme poverty in 2024 under the World Bank’s revised $3.00/day poverty line, roughly 10.3% of the global population.
- More than three-quarters of the world’s extreme poor live in Sub-Saharan Africa or in fragile and conflict-affected states.
- Sub-Saharan Africa’s extreme poverty rate stood at approximately 46% in 2024, the highest of any region.
- Nearly three-quarters of the world’s extreme poor live in rural areas, though rural poverty has fallen faster than urban poverty over the past decade.
- The World Bank projects roughly 9% of the global population will still be in extreme poverty in 2030, far short of the Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating it.
- Population growth alone is not a proven direct cause of poverty; outcomes depend on whether economic growth, job creation, and institutions keep pace with demographic change.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does population growth cause poverty?
Not directly on its own. Poverty is more closely linked to whether economic growth, job creation, and public investment keep pace with population growth than to population growth itself.
2. Where does most extreme poverty occur?
Sub-Saharan Africa, where the World Bank estimates roughly 46% of the population lived in extreme poverty in 2024, accounting for the clear majority of the world’s extreme poor.
3. Why is poverty concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa?
A combination of factors including conflict and fragility in parts of the region, weaker infrastructure and job creation relative to population growth, and lower agricultural productivity in predominantly rural economies.
4. Are poor populations mostly rural?
Yes. Nearly three-quarters of people in extreme poverty globally live in rural areas, though rural poverty rates have fallen faster than urban poverty rates over the past decade.
5. Does lower fertility reduce poverty?
The relationship runs in both directions; lower fertility is associated with lower poverty, but poverty itself also drives higher fertility through limited access to education and family planning, making the connection complex rather than simply causal in one direction.
6. How does economic growth reduce poverty?
Broad-based economic growth that creates formal jobs and raises incomes, especially when combined with education and health investment, has historically been the most effective driver of poverty reduction, as seen across much of East and Southeast Asia.
7. What is the current international poverty line?
As of the World Bank’s June 2025 update, the international extreme poverty line is $3.00 per person per day, measured in 2021 purchasing-power-parity dollars, up from the previous $2.15 line.
8. Will the world eliminate extreme poverty by 2030?
It appears highly unlikely under current trends; the World Bank projects roughly 9% of the global population will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, far above the Sustainable Development Goal target of eradicating it.
9. How many people live in extreme poverty today?
An estimated 839 million people lived in extreme poverty in 2024, with a nowcast of roughly 808 million, or about 9.9%, for 2025, under the World Bank’s revised poverty line.
10. Has global poverty reduction slowed?
Yes. The World Bank describes progress as having slowed to a near-standstill during the 2020s, reflecting the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic instability, climate shocks, and persistently weak growth in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Sources
- World Bank, “September 2025 global poverty update: New data and regional classifications” (blogs.worldbank.org)
- World Bank, “June 2025 Update to Global Poverty Lines” (worldbank.org)
- World Bank, Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024 (worldbank.org)
- World Bank Group, Poverty and Inequality Update, Fall 2025 (thedocs.worldbank.org)
- United Nations Statistics Division, SDG Goal 1 report 2025 (unstats.un.org)
- Our World in Data, poverty data compiled from World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (ourworldindata.org)
