By Amr Gohar
Washington, D.C. – The World Bank Group has announced a major update to the international poverty line — raising the threshold to $3 per person per day — as part of ongoing efforts to more accurately capture extreme poverty and monitor global progress in reducing hardship.
According to a World Bank statement, the international poverty line has been periodically revised since its introduction in 1990, when it was first set at $1 per day. The latest adjustment reflects changes in household living costs across the world, using updated Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) based on 2021 global price data.
The new benchmark aims to better represent the basic cost of survival in the poorest countries. However, the World Bank emphasized that $3 per day remains “an extremely low bar,” prompting the institution to also monitor higher poverty thresholds for lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income countries. These lines, introduced in 2017, provide a more complete picture of deprivation in nations with higher living standards.
In 2024, the Bank also developed the “Prosperity Gap” — a tool designed to measure how far low- and middle-income countries remain from reaching subsistence levels typical of high-income economies.
The Bank highlighted dramatic progress in reducing poverty since the 1990s. Three decades ago, poverty was heavily concentrated in East Asia, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Today, much of East and South Asia have seen steep declines in poverty rates, while Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most affected by extreme hardship.
Global demographics have also shifted: in 1990, nearly 60% of the world lived in low-income countries. Today, that figure has dropped to less than 10%. Meanwhile, middle-income nations now account for roughly three-quarters of the global population.
The World Bank said the revisions will help policymakers better target assistance and address areas where progress has stalled. The updated poverty thresholds and new tools, officials noted, are essential for assessing vulnerabilities and driving the next stage of global development.
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