Number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide reaches 1.2 billion

Across the globe, 1.2 billion people are living in conditions of extreme poverty. Within a year, their number has increased by 51.5 million. This was stated in a report prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and researchers from Oxford University.

According to the document, people living in extreme poverty face not only financial hardships, but also problems such as hunger, limited access to education, and a lack of clean drinking water and electricity. Most alarmingly, children make up more than half of this population.

UNDP Head Alexander De Croo assessed the rise in poverty indicators as a serious warning for the entire world.

It is noted that one of the factors contributing to the increase in the number of people living in poverty is population growth. At the same time, new data is available for only 13 out of the 108 developing countries covered by the report. Therefore, this circumstance must also be taken into account when evaluating the presented figures.

Nevertheless, positive changes are being observed in some countries. Over the past 15 years, the proportion of the population living in difficult conditions according to multidimensional poverty criteria has halved in 33 countries. Among them are China and Vietnam.

However, the problem of poverty persists mainly in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The report notes that both the poverty rate and the number of people suffering from it have significantly decreased in Egypt, Nepal, and Tajikistan. A different situation was observed in Angola and Zambia: although the poverty rate declined, the number of people living in poverty increased due to rapid population growth.