Is extreme poverty still on the decline?

Development in Brief

The decline in extreme poverty over the last few years has been remarkable. While in 1990 about 1.9 billion people were affected by extreme poverty, this figure had dropped to 736 million by 2015. But there is still no guarantee that the target will be achieved. A new picture has emerged in recent years, particularly in regional terms: around 85% of all extremely poor people (based on USD 1.90/capita/day) are expected to live in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2030.

To create a more comprehensive picture of global poverty trends, the World Bank now uses two additional indicators to measure absolute poverty for middle-income countries. The current issue of Development in Brief describes these indicators and discusses whether extreme poverty is really on the decline in view of recent developments and regional distribution and whether optimism for 2030 regarding SDG 1 is justified.

Is extreme poverty still on the decline?(PDF, 153 KB, accessible)