Behind every poverty statistic is a human reality. At Datapott Analytics’ we analyze data on poverty in all its dimensions; from extreme deprivation and child poverty to working poverty, inequality, and the global race to meet the 2030 zero-poverty target. Explore the data, understand the trends, and see what the evidence says.
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.
The fastest decade of reduction was 2000 – 2010, when the rate fell 16%, largely driven by China’s rapid industrialisation and economic reforms lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty.
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Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s most poverty-stricken region, and the least improved. Its rate fell from 54.9% in 1990 to 35.3% in 2022, a reduction of only 19.6 percentage points while its population more than doubled, meaning the absolute number of poor actually rose.
East Asia & Pacific achieved the most dramatic regional poverty reduction in history, from 60.1% in 1990 to 2.9% in 2022, a 57.2-point collapse driven overwhelmingly by China’s economic transformation.
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.
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.
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.
