Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report

Jobs at the Center of Poverty Eradication

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Global progress on reducing extreme poverty has come to a standstill, and the world is at risk of falling further behind, according to the new Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report 2026: Jobs at the Center of Poverty Eradication. Without stronger per capita growth, the number of people in extreme poverty is projected to be higher in 2030 than it is today. The report finds that creating more and better jobs is a powerful lever to lift people out of poverty.

Download, explore and share the findings from the Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report 2026: Jobs at the Center of Poverty Eradication. 

Full Report Overview

Extreme poverty reduction has stalled and might rise

In 2026, 811 million people, 1 in 10, live on less than $3.00 a day, a rate unchanged since 2019. More than half the extreme poor live in nine economies, and by 2030, 87 percent will be in Sub-Saharan Africa, in fragile and conflict-affected situations, or both. Without stronger per capita growth, the number of people in extreme poverty is projected to be higher in 2030 than it is today.

Despite the reduction seen in past decades, escaping extreme poverty has not meant reaching security. Nearly half of humanity, 3.7 billion people, still lives on less than $8.30 a day, most of them one shock away from falling back.

Extreme poverty against the 2000-13 trajectory

Source: World Bank Group. Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report 2026: Jobs at the Center of Poverty Eradication.

Note: The figure reports poverty rates and the number of poor for the $3.00-a-person-a-day and $4.20-a-person-a-day poverty lines (at 2021 purchasing power parity). Dashed lines show counterfactual projections based on the log-linear trend observed between 2000 and 2013, anchored at 2013 values. For the full 1990–2026 series over which the pre-2013 trend can be observed, refer to annex 1B in the full report. Data for 2025 and 2026 are nowcasts (refer to annex 1A in the full report). Values for 2019 are considered projections because surveys around 2019 represent less than 50 percent of the population of low-income and lower-middle-income economies (refer to box 1.4 and annex 1A in the full report). pps = percentage points.

Extreme poverty is regionally concentrated

Source: World Bank Group. Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report 2026: Jobs at the Center of Poverty Eradication.

Note: The figure reports poverty rates for the $3.00-a-day poverty line (at 2021 purchasing power parity). Projections for poverty between 2025 and 2030 are based on the historical GDP per capita growth rates of economies between 2010 and 2019 (refer to figure 1.9 in the full report). Economies are classified as fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCSs) using the World Bank classification of FCS from each year until 2025 (fiscal year 2026). The classification is kept fixed after 2025. The regional groupings align with the World Bank's current regional classification and differ from those used in previous editions of the report. FCS = fragile and conflict-affected situation; MENAAP = Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan; SSA = Sub-Saharan Africa.

Progress toward shared prosperity has slowed

The Prosperity Gap, which captures how far the world is from a dignified and secure daily standard of living, halved between 1990 and 2013, but it has narrowed by barely 1 percent a year since. One in five people worldwide, and more than a third of the people living in extreme poverty, lives in an economy with high levels of inequality.

Economies with high inequality and population living in them, 2000-24

Source: Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report 2026: Jobs at the Center of Poverty Eradication. World Bank Group.

Note: High-inequality economies are economies having Gini indexes greater than 40. If no survey is available for a particular economy for a given year, data for that economy from the most recent survey year prior to that year are used. If the first survey available for an economy is after 2000, data from the earliest survey for that economy are backcasted to ensure a balanced sample.

Global Prosperity Gap, level and annual percentage change, 1990-2026

Source: Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report 2026: Jobs at the Center of Poverty Eradication. World Bank Group.

Note: High-inequality economies are economies having Gini indexes greater than 40. If no survey is available for a particular economy for a given year, data for that economy from the most recent survey year prior to that year are used. If the first survey available for an economy is after 2000, data from the earliest survey for that economy are backcasted to ensure a balanced sample. The dotted line for 2025–26 indicates nowcasted values.

Climate-related shocks threaten the progress against poverty

Of the 4.6 billion people living in areas exposed to major climate-related hazards, 1.5 billion are in a highly vulnerable situation because they lack social protection or access to basic infrastructure. While the high-risk share declined from 1 in 3 people in 2010 to 1 in 6 people in 2024, the number of people exposed rose by about 550 million.

Climate risk is widespread and emissions are rising where the poor are not

Source: Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report 2026: Jobs at the Center of Poverty Eradication. World Bank Group.

Note: Trends in the percentage of people at risk reflect changes in vulnerability only. The underlying calculations assume fixed percentages of people exposed to hazards. Because of data availability limitations, not all years include the same sets of countries within each region. Concentric circles depict the overall population in the data sample (lightest color), the share of the population exposed to any type of hazard (intermediate color), and the share of the population that is exposed to any type of hazard and that is also vulnerable along at least one dimension (darkest color). All regions include three circles, but, among those regions in which high shares of the population are exposed, the lightest circle is not easily visible. The vertical placement of circles is ordered by the percentage of people at risk in 2024. Other global reflects (a) aviation and maritime transportation emissions that are not assigned to a country; (b) nontropical forest, also not generally attributable to countries; and (c) remaining residuals between the global emissions numbers reported in 2025 by M. Crippa, D. Guizzardi, F. Pagani, et al. (GHG Emissions of All World Countries 2025, Joint Research Centre Science for Policy Report, European Union). The sums of country-level emissions were reported by the same authors. Income group classifications are as of 2025. Units: metric gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO₂e). AFE = Africa Eastern and Southern; AFW = Africa Western and Central; GHG = greenhouse gas; MENAAP = Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Ending extreme poverty would barely add to global emissions

The effort to eradicate extreme poverty is estimated to add less than 5 percent to global emissions. The extreme poor contribute the least to global emissions but are the most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. 

More jobs and better-paid jobs are needed to reduce poverty

Nearly all poor households hold a single productive asset: human capital. This makes employment — quantity and quality — the central lever for poverty reduction.

 

Closing employment gaps in poor households to a benchmark of 75% of working-age adults would reduce extreme poverty by a fifth, with the gain going mainly to workers above the extreme poverty line — where the nonworking adults are mostly women.

 

Raising the earnings of poor workers toward what comparable nonpoor workers earn could cut poverty by nearly half, with the gain going mainly to the poorest households.

Change in the probability of escaping poverty from a move into wage employment, by income group

Source: Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report 2026: Jobs at the Center of Poverty Eradication. World Bank Group.

Note: The figure illustrates the change in the probability of escaping poverty (percentage points). Bars: ordinary least square coefficients (×10) from linear probability models of exiting poverty (poor at baseline, nonpoor at endline) on the change in the household share of working-age members (ages 15–64) in wage employment and in nonwage employment (self-employment in agriculture, self-employment in nonagriculture, and employer, consolidated into one variable). Poverty status is measured against the income-group–specific international poverty line (2021 purchasing power parity). Whiskers are 95 percent confidence intervals. Sample: initially poor households.