Out of all OECD countries, Cost Rica had the highest poverty rate as of 2022, at over 20 percent. The country with the second highest poverty rate was the United States, with 18 percent. On the other end of the scale, Czechia had the lowest poverty rate at 6.4 percent, followed by Denmark.

The significance of the OECD

The OECD, or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, was founded in 1948 and is made up of 38 member countries. It seeks to improve the economic and social well-being of countries and their populations. The OECD looks at issues that impact people’s everyday lives and proposes policies that can help to improve the quality of life.

Poverty in the United States

In 2022, there were nearly 38 million people living below the poverty line in the U.S.. About one fourth of the Native American population lived in poverty in 2022, the most out of any ethnicity. In addition, the rate was higher among young women than young men. It is clear that poverty in the United States is a complex, multi-faceted issue that affects millions of people and is even more complex to solve.

All the 20 countries with the highest poverty rates in the world are located in Africa. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique were the two countries with the highest share of people living on less than 2.15 U.S. dollars a day when adjusting for 2017 Purchasing Power Parities (PPP), both at over ** percent.

The average for 2020 based on 10 countries was 30.53 percent. The highest value was in Mexico: 43.9 percent and the lowest value was in Chile: 10.8 percent. The indicator is available from 2000 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Honduras was the country in Latin America with the highest share of population living on less than 3.20 U.S. dollars per day. The Central American nation had 26.4 percent of its population living on less than 3.20 U.S. dollars a day, while Colombia came second highest with 14 percent. On the other hand, Uruguay had only 0.8 percent of poverty headcount ratio, featured as the lowest share in the region.

Graph and download economic data for Estimated Percent of People of All Ages in Poverty for United States (PPAAUS00000A156NCEN) from 1989 to 2023 about percent, child, poverty, and USA.

China poverty rate for 2021 was 21.00%, a 8.5% decline from 2020.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>China poverty rate for 2020 was <strong>29.50%</strong>, a <strong>0.6% increase</strong> from 2019.</li>
<li>China poverty rate for 2019 was <strong>28.90%</strong>, a <strong>3.3% decline</strong> from 2018.</li>
<li>China poverty rate for 2018 was <strong>32.20%</strong>, a <strong>4.1% decline</strong> from 2017.</li>
</ul>Poverty headcount ratio at $5.50 a day is the percentage of the population living on less than $5.50 a day at 2011 international prices. As a result of revisions in PPP exchange rates, poverty rates for individual countries cannot be compared with poverty rates reported in earlier editions.

The average for 2020 based on 3 countries was 7.13 percent. The highest value was in Indonesia: 9.8 percent and the lowest value was in Vietnam: 4.8 percent. The indicator is available from 2000 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In 2023, all selected Latin American countries registered a higher poverty rate for women than for men. Colombia ranked among the highest poverty rates both for males and females only behind Honduras.

Will all children be able to read by 2030? The ability to read with comprehension is a foundational skill that every education system around the world strives to impart by late in primary school—generally by age 10. Moreover, attaining the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education requires first achieving this basic building block, and so does improving countries’ Human Capital Index scores. Yet past evidence from many low- and middle-income countries has shown that many children are not learning to read with comprehension in primary school. To understand the global picture better, we have worked with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) to assemble a new dataset with the most comprehensive measures of this foundational skill yet developed, by linking together data from credible cross-national and national assessments of reading. This dataset covers 115 countries, accounting for 81% of children worldwide and 79% of children in low- and middle-income countries. The new data allow us to estimate the reading proficiency of late-primary-age children, and we also provide what are among the first estimates (and the most comprehensive, for low- and middle-income countries) of the historical rate of progress in improving reading proficiency globally (for the 2000-17 period). The results show that 53% of all children in low- and middle-income countries cannot read age-appropriate material by age 10, and that at current rates of improvement, this “learning poverty” rate will have fallen only to 43% by 2030. Indeed, we find that the goal of all children reading by 2030 will be attainable only with historically unprecedented progress. The high rate of “learning poverty” and slow progress in low- and middle-income countries is an early warning that all the ambitious SDG targets in education (and likely of social progress) are at risk. Based on this evidence, we suggest a new medium-term target to guide the World Bank’s work in low- and middle- income countries: cut learning poverty by at least half by 2030. This target, together with improved measurement of learning, can be as an evidence-based tool to accelerate progress to get all children reading by age 10.

For further details, please refer to https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/e52f55322528903b27f1b7e61238e416-0200022022/original/Learning-poverty-report-2022-06-21-final-V7-0-conferenceEdition.pdf

The average for 2021 based on 71 countries was 25.11 percent. The highest value was in Niger: 96.3 percent and the lowest value was in Cyprus: 0.1 percent. The indicator is available from 1963 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In 2025, nearly 11.7 percent of the world population in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at 2.15 U.S. dollars a day, lived in Nigeria. Moreover, the Democratic Republic of the Congo accounted for around 11.7 percent of the global population in extreme poverty. Other African nations with a large poor population were Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar. Poverty levels remain high despite the forecast decline Poverty is a widespread issue across Africa. Around 429 million people on the continent were living below the extreme poverty line of 2.15 U.S. dollars a day in 2024. Since the continent had approximately 1.4 billion inhabitants, roughly a third of Africa’s population was in extreme poverty that year. Mozambique, Malawi, Central African Republic, and Niger had Africa’s highest extreme poverty rates based on the 2.15 U.S. dollars per day extreme poverty indicator (updated from 1.90 U.S. dollars in September 2022). Although the levels of poverty on the continent are forecast to decrease in the coming years, Africa will remain the poorest region compared to the rest of the world. Prevalence of poverty and malnutrition across Africa Multiple factors are linked to increased poverty. Regions with critical situations of employment, education, health, nutrition, war, and conflict usually have larger poor populations. Consequently, poverty tends to be more prevalent in least-developed and developing countries worldwide. For similar reasons, rural households also face higher poverty levels. In 2024, the extreme poverty rate in Africa stood at around 45 percent among the rural population, compared to seven percent in urban areas. Together with poverty, malnutrition is also widespread in Africa. Limited access to food leads to low health conditions, increasing the poverty risk. At the same time, poverty can determine inadequate nutrition. Almost 38.3 percent of the global undernourished population lived in Africa in 2022.

Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data was reported at 22.200 % in 2021. This records an increase from the previous number of 22.000 % for 2020. Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data is updated yearly, averaging 23.200 % from Dec 1979 (Median) to 2021, with 25 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 26.200 % in 2009 and a record low of 18.500 % in 1992. Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Israel – Table IL.World Bank.WDI: Social: Poverty and Inequality. The poverty headcount ratio at societal poverty line is the percentage of a population living in poverty according to the World Bank's Societal Poverty Line. The Societal Poverty Line is expressed in purchasing power adjusted 2017 U.S. dollars and defined as max($2.15, $1.15 + 0.5*Median). This means that when the national median is sufficiently low, the Societal Poverty line is equivalent to the extreme poverty line, $2.15. For countries with a sufficiently high national median, the Societal Poverty Line grows as countries’ median income grows.;World Bank, Poverty and Inequality Platform. Data are based on primary household survey data obtained from government statistical agencies and World Bank country departments. Data for high-income economies are mostly from the Luxembourg Income Study database. For more information and methodology, please see http://pip.worldbank.org.;;The World Bank’s internationally comparable poverty monitoring database now draws on income or detailed consumption data from more than 2000 household surveys across 169 countries. See the Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP) for details (www.pip.worldbank.org).

Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data was reported at 19.000 % in 2021. This records a decrease from the previous number of 20.900 % for 2020. Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data is updated yearly, averaging 31.700 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2021, with 19 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 72.000 % in 1990 and a record low of 19.000 % in 2021. Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s China – Table CN.World Bank.WDI: Social: Poverty and Inequality. The poverty headcount ratio at societal poverty line is the percentage of a population living in poverty according to the World Bank's Societal Poverty Line. The Societal Poverty Line is expressed in purchasing power adjusted 2017 U.S. dollars and defined as max($2.15, $1.15 + 0.5*Median). This means that when the national median is sufficiently low, the Societal Poverty line is equivalent to the extreme poverty line, $2.15. For countries with a sufficiently high national median, the Societal Poverty Line grows as countries’ median income grows.;World Bank, Poverty and Inequality Platform. Data are based on primary household survey data obtained from government statistical agencies and World Bank country departments. Data for high-income economies are mostly from the Luxembourg Income Study database. For more information and methodology, please see http://pip.worldbank.org.;;The World Bank’s internationally comparable poverty monitoring database now draws on income or detailed consumption data from more than 2000 household surveys across 169 countries. See the Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP) for details (www.pip.worldbank.org).

Definition: The indicator “proportion of the population below the international poverty line” is defined as the percentage of the population living on less than $2.15 a day at 2017 international prices. Concepts: In assessing poverty in a given country, and how best to reduce poverty, one naturally focuses on a poverty line that is considered appropriate for that country. But how do we talk meaningfully about Last updated: 2023-03-31 “global poverty?” Poverty lines across countries vary in terms of their purchasing power, and they have a strong economic gradient, such that richer countries tend to adopt higher standards of living in defining poverty. But to consistently measure global absolute poverty in terms of consumption we need to treat two people with the same purchasing power over commodities the same way—both are either poor or not poor—even if they live in different countries. Since World Development Report 1990, the World Bank has aimed to apply a common standard in measuring extreme poverty, anchored to what poverty means in the world's poorest countries. The welfare of people living in different countries can be measured on a common scale by adjusting for differences in the purchasing power of currencies. The commonly used $1 a day standard, measured in 1985 international prices and adjusted to local currency using purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates, was chosen for World Development Report 1990 because it was typical of the poverty lines in lowincome countries at the time. As differences in the cost of living across the world evolve, the international poverty line has to be periodically updated using new PPP price data to reflect these changes. The last change was in September 2022, when the World Bank adopted $2.15 as the international poverty line using the 2017 PPP. Prior to that, the 2015 update set the international poverty line at $1.90 using the 2011 PPP. Poverty measures based on international poverty lines attempt to hold the real value of the poverty line constant across countries and over time. Unit of measure: Percent (%). The unit of measure is the proportion of people.Validation: The raw data are obtained by poverty economists through their contacts in the NSOs, and checked for quality before being submitted for further analysis. The raw data can be unit-record survey data, or grouped data, depending on the agreements with the country governments. In most cases, the welfare aggregate, the essential element for poverty estimation, is generated by the country governments. Sometimes, the World Bank constructs the welfare aggregate or adjusts the aggregate provided by the countryData availability: Data are available in 160+ economies, (measured in terms of number of economies that have at least 1 data point). References: For more information and methodology, please see : https://worldbank.github.io/PIP-Methodology/. Also, consult: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/37061

Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data was reported at 7.800 % in 2021. This records an increase from the previous number of 7.600 % for 2020. Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data is updated yearly, averaging 7.800 % from Dec 1987 (Median) to 2021, with 23 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8.400 % in 2010 and a record low of 4.200 % in 1995. Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Finland – Table FI.World Bank.WDI: Social: Poverty and Inequality. The poverty headcount ratio at societal poverty line is the percentage of a population living in poverty according to the World Bank's Societal Poverty Line. The Societal Poverty Line is expressed in purchasing power adjusted 2017 U.S. dollars and defined as max($2.15, $1.15 + 0.5*Median). This means that when the national median is sufficiently low, the Societal Poverty line is equivalent to the extreme poverty line, $2.15. For countries with a sufficiently high national median, the Societal Poverty Line grows as countries’ median income grows.;World Bank, Poverty and Inequality Platform. Data are based on primary household survey data obtained from government statistical agencies and World Bank country departments. Data for high-income economies are mostly from the Luxembourg Income Study database. For more information and methodology, please see http://pip.worldbank.org.;;The World Bank’s internationally comparable poverty monitoring database now draws on income or detailed consumption data from more than 2000 household surveys across 169 countries. See the Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP) for details (www.pip.worldbank.org).

UAE poverty rate for 2018 was 0.60%, a 0.6% increase from 2013.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>UAE poverty rate for 2013 was <strong>0.00%</strong>, a <strong>0% increase</strong> from .</li>
<li>UAE poverty rate for was <strong>0.00%</strong>, a <strong>0% increase</strong> from .</li>
<li>UAE poverty rate for was <strong>0.00%</strong>, a <strong>0% increase</strong> from .</li>
</ul>Poverty headcount ratio at $5.50 a day is the percentage of the population living on less than $5.50 a day at 2011 international prices. As a result of revisions in PPP exchange rates, poverty rates for individual countries cannot be compared with poverty rates reported in earlier editions.

Egypt EG: Poverty Headcount Ratio at National Poverty Lines: % of Population data was reported at 27.800 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 26.300 % for 2012. Egypt EG: Poverty Headcount Ratio at National Poverty Lines: % of Population data is updated yearly, averaging 23.400 % from Dec 1999 (Median) to 2015, with 6 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 27.800 % in 2015 and a record low of 16.700 % in 1999. Egypt EG: Poverty Headcount Ratio at National Poverty Lines: % of Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Egypt – Table EG.World Bank.WDI: Poverty. National poverty headcount ratio is the percentage of the population living below the national poverty lines. National estimates are based on population-weighted subgroup estimates from household surveys.; ; World Bank, Global Poverty Working Group. Data are compiled from official government sources or are computed by World Bank staff using national (i.e. country–specific) poverty lines.; ; This series only includes estimates that to the best of our knowledge are reasonably comparable over time for a country. Due to differences in estimation methodologies and poverty lines, estimates should not be compared across countries.

Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data was reported at 8.000 % in 2021. This records an increase from the previous number of 7.500 % for 2020. Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data is updated yearly, averaging 7.100 % from Dec 1987 (Median) to 2021, with 23 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8.200 % in 2010 and a record low of 5.000 % in 1995. Poverty Headcount Ratio at Societal Poverty Lines: % of Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Denmark – Table DK.World Bank.WDI: Social: Poverty and Inequality. The poverty headcount ratio at societal poverty line is the percentage of a population living in poverty according to the World Bank's Societal Poverty Line. The Societal Poverty Line is expressed in purchasing power adjusted 2017 U.S. dollars and defined as max($2.15, $1.15 + 0.5*Median). This means that when the national median is sufficiently low, the Societal Poverty line is equivalent to the extreme poverty line, $2.15. For countries with a sufficiently high national median, the Societal Poverty Line grows as countries’ median income grows.;World Bank, Poverty and Inequality Platform. Data are based on primary household survey data obtained from government statistical agencies and World Bank country departments. Data for high-income economies are mostly from the Luxembourg Income Study database. For more information and methodology, please see http://pip.worldbank.org.;;The World Bank’s internationally comparable poverty monitoring database now draws on income or detailed consumption data from more than 2000 household surveys across 169 countries. See the Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP) for details (www.pip.worldbank.org).

The underlying data are used to provide inputs for both the Vision indicator on the global population living in poverty as well as the Client Context indicator on the percentage of the population in FCV countries living in poverty. The Vision indicator measures the percentage of the population living on less than $2.15 a day in 2017 purchasing power parity (PPP) adjusted prices. Measures are based on internationally comparable poverty lines hold the real value of the poverty line constant across countries when making national and temporal comparisons. The current extreme poverty line ($2.15 a day, 2017 PPP) represents the median of the poverty lines found in low-income countries.

United States US: Income Share Held by Lowest 10% data was reported at 1.700 % in 2016. This stayed constant from the previous number of 1.700 % for 2013. United States US: Income Share Held by Lowest 10% data is updated yearly, averaging 1.800 % from Dec 1979 (Median) to 2016, with 11 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2.300 % in 1979 and a record low of 1.700 % in 2016. United States US: Income Share Held by Lowest 10% data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Poverty. Percentage share of income or consumption is the share that accrues to subgroups of population indicated by deciles or quintiles.; ; World Bank, Development Research Group. Data are based on primary household survey data obtained from government statistical agencies and World Bank country departments. Data for high-income economies are from the Luxembourg Income Study database. For more information and methodology, please see PovcalNet (http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/index.htm).; ; The World Bank’s internationally comparable poverty monitoring database now draws on income or detailed consumption data from more than one thousand six hundred household surveys across 164 countries in six regions and 25 other high income countries (industrialized economies). While income distribution data are published for all countries with data available, poverty data are published for low- and middle-income countries and countries eligible to receive loans from the World Bank (such as Chile) and recently graduated countries (such as Estonia) only. See PovcalNet (http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/WhatIsNew.aspx) for definitions of geographical regions and industrialized countries.