World Bank: 826 Million People Still Living in Extreme Poverty Worldwide

Washington, September 12, 2026: Despite decades of progress in reducing poverty, an estimated 826 million people around the world still live in extreme poverty, according to the latest analysis published by the World Bank.

The institution says the international extreme poverty benchmark remains important because it helps identify and focus attention on people facing the most severe forms of economic deprivation. The current benchmark is $3 per person per day in 2021 prices.

Poverty Reduction Has Slowed

The World Bank notes that the global share of people living in extreme poverty has fallen dramatically, from about 43% in 1990 to around 10% today. However, progress among the world’s poorest people has slowed considerably.

Dozens of countries continue to record extreme poverty rates above 40%. The World Bank warns that, if these countries progress at historical rates, reaching very low poverty levels could take several generations. The situation is particularly concerning because the poorest countries are currently advancing more slowly than they did in previous periods.

The World Bank’s March 2026 update similarly showed that global poverty reduction remains uneven. It estimated that 847 million people were living in extreme poverty in 2024, while its projections indicated a gradual decline by 2026.

Why the $3-a-Day Threshold Matters

The $3 threshold is not intended to represent a comfortable standard of living. Instead, it is designed to capture an extremely low level of consumption associated with basic needs in the world’s poorest countries.

The World Bank argues that retaining such a benchmark ensures that international attention remains focused on people experiencing the deepest deprivation. Raising the threshold substantially could shift the focus toward populations in countries with considerably higher living standards, potentially reducing attention on those at the bottom of the global income distribution.

For a typical six-person household living in extreme poverty, the World Bank estimates that the $3 benchmark translates to approximately $675 per month in 2026 prices.

The Poorest Are Falling Further Behind

The World Bank also highlights a widening gap in progress between the world’s poorest people and those closer to the middle of the global income distribution.

According to its analysis, the bottom 10% of the world’s population experienced virtually no income growth over the past decade, while people around the middle of the global distribution experienced substantially faster growth.

The organization says this makes targeted efforts to improve living standards among the poorest populations especially important.

Poverty Is More Than Income

The World Bank stresses that the $3 benchmark should not be viewed as a complete measurement of poverty. Access to education, healthcare, clean water, sanitation, electricity and other essential services also plays a major role in determining people’s living conditions.

The institution therefore uses several poverty measures to provide a broader picture of deprivation, while the extreme poverty line serves as a common international benchmark for comparing conditions across countries.

The latest assessment highlights a central challenge for the global development community: while extraordinary progress has been achieved since 1990, eliminating the remaining extreme poverty will require much faster progress among the countries and communities that have benefited least from global economic growth.