Data, Insights & Research for Policy Development
Sub-Saharan Africa Holds 67% of the World’s Extreme Poor Yet Accounts for Just 15% of Its Population
In 2024, 847 million people live in extreme poverty globally, and 570 million of them, a staggering 67.2%, are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, a region whose poverty rate is not declining but rising.
East Asia Cut Its Poverty Rate by 57 Points in 32 Years, While Sub-Saharan Africa Has Slightly Moved in Three Decades
Between 1990 and 2022, East Asia & Pacific slashed its extreme poverty rate from 60.1% to just 2.9%, a 57-percentage-point fall, while Sub-Saharan Africa’s rate dropped by only 19.6 points, leaving 35% of its population still below the poverty line.
The World Has Halved Extreme Poverty Since 1990 – But COVID Reversed 25 Years of Progress in a Single Year
In 1990, more than half the world (53.7%) lived in extreme poverty; by 2024 that figure had fallen to 10.4%, lifting an estimated 1.5 billion people out of destitution over three decades. Yet in 2020, COVID-19 erased a generation of gains in a single year, and today, 847 million people still survive on less than $3 a day.
Asia Alone Produces a Third of the World’s CO₂, And Has Emitted Nearly 900 Billion Tonnes Historically
Asia accounts for 33.4% of annual global CO₂ emissions and has accumulated 899 billion tonnes historically, more than North America and Europe combined. Across all three greenhouse gases, CO₂, methane, and nitrous oxide, one pattern is unmistakable: Asia leads, and the gap is widening.
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