money & economicsOur World in Data
Sub-Saharan Africa has one in six people but two-thirds of the world's extreme poverty
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to about one in six people on Earth but accounts for about two-thirds of the world's extreme poor, those living on less than $2.15 a day, adjusted for living costs between countries. Globally, roughly one in twelve people still lives in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty has fallen dramatically since 1990, but progress in the region has been slower, in part because populations are growing quickly and incomes have risen less than in other regions.
Extreme poverty is measured with an international poverty line that converts local incomes into purchasing-power equivalents, so that the same spending power is compared across countries. Population growth can raise the number of poor people even when poverty rates fall.
The concentration of extreme poverty in one region shapes global development priorities, aid and debates about growth. It also shows that global averages can hide enormous regional differences.
Extreme poverty was once concentrated in Asia, and its center of gravity shifted as China and India grew rapidly, a pattern that is now shifting toward Africa.
background
Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services". Historically, other definitions have been proposed within the United Nations.
Extreme poverty mainly refers to an income below the international poverty line of $3 per day in 2025 ($2.99 in 2025 dollars), set by the World Bank. This is the equivalent of $1.00 a day in 1985 US prices, hence the widely used expression "living on less than a dollar a day". The vast majority of those in extreme poverty reside in Sub-Saharan Africa. As of 2026, it is estimated that the country with the most people living in extreme poverty is the DRC, at 76.2 million.
In the past, the vast majority of the world population lived in conditions of extreme poverty.
From Wikipedia: Extreme poverty (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗
