The number of people
living in acute poverty worldwide has risen to 1.2 billion, marking the first increase in the global poverty index since its introduction in 2010, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
The 2026 report, published on Monday by the UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, identified 51.5 million more people experiencing acute poverty than in the previous year.
UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo described the development as a warning to the international community, urging world leaders to take urgent action to address the growing challenge.
“Behind these figures are 1.2 billion people facing hardships that reinforce one another: hunger, missed schooling and a lack of clean water or electricity. This is unacceptable,” he said in a press release.
Children account for more than half of the people living in acute poverty, highlighting the disproportionate impact of deprivation on younger populations.
However, the UNDP cautioned that population growth was a major contributor to the increase in the number of people affected.
It also noted that the latest data covered only 13 of the 108 developing countries included in the report.
Despite the global increase, the report highlighted progress in some countries, noting that 33 nations had reduced by half the proportion of their populations living in multidimensional poverty over the past 15 years.
Six of the countries that achieved this milestone were in sub-Saharan Africa, while China and Vietnam were among the Asian countries that recorded some of the fastest improvements, according to the UNDP.
Nevertheless, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, particularly the Indian subcontinent, remain home to the majority of the world’s poorest people.
The report also identified significant improvements in Egypt, Nepal and Tajikistan, where both the poverty rate and the number of people experiencing multidimensional poverty declined.
In Angola and Zambia, poverty rates also fell, but population growth outpaced the gains, resulting in an increase in the total number of people living in poverty.
The global multidimensional poverty index assesses deprivation beyond income, measuring factors such as inadequate housing, poor sanitation, lack of electricity, reliance on cooking fuels, food insecurity and limited access to education.
