How many people live in extreme poverty?
Around 611 million people live in extreme poverty worldwide, according to World Data Lab's World Poverty Clock, which models and forecasts poverty in real time rather than reporting a single annual estimate.
Last updated
How the number is produced
The World Poverty Clock does not wait for retrospective survey releases. It combines household survey data with growth and demographic projections to estimate how many people are in extreme poverty right now, and how that figure is trending toward 2030 — the deadline for SDG 1, the eradication of extreme poverty.
Because it is a live model, the headline figure changes continuously. Use the clock itself for the current value and this page for the interpretation.
Poverty and work are not opposites
Extreme poverty is often framed as an absence of employment, but World Data Lab's Africa Youth Employment Outlook 2026 shows 104 million young African workers — 34% of those in work — living in households classified as extremely poor, with 90% of them in informal jobs.
That means poverty reduction depends on the quality, productivity and security of work, not only on the number of jobs created.
Where progress is happening
The largest gains have come from low- and middle-income economies growing faster than richer ones, particularly in Asia. Measured by consumption, the spending gap between the world's richest 10% and poorest 50% has more than halved since 2000 — evidence that steady, unglamorous progress is real even when it does not make headlines.
See the live data
This explainer draws on the World Poverty Clock, which updates continuously.
Open the World Poverty Clock