During the pandemic, the number of extremely poor people in the world increased for the first time in a long while. Now the numbers have turned downward again and are reaching the same level as before the pandemic, below 9 percent.
Global inequality has decreased dramatically since the 1980s. Inequality within countries has stopped increasing and has decreased over the last decade. Poverty is decreasing faster than previously estimated, even at higher poverty thresholds.
The poverty rate in the Philippines dropped to 15.5 percent in 2023, from 18.1 percent in 2021. The number of poor Filipinos decreased by 2.45 million between 2021 and 2023. The result surpasses the government's development goal for 2023, which was set at about 16.0 percent.
Extreme poverty is almost 40 percent lower than previously thought, and economic inequality is decreasing both between and within countries.
India has eradicated all extreme poverty, according to the international poverty line of 1.9 dollars per day. This is partly thanks to a growth rate of 2.9 percent per year since 2011-12. At the same time, economic inequality has significantly decreased in both urban and rural areas.