poverty

In 2025, global poverty remains one of the most pressing challenges of our time. Despite decades of development efforts, over 700 million people still live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $3 per day. This represents nearly 9% of the world’s population, with the highest concentrations in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Beyond income-based poverty, 1.1 billion people across 109 countries are classified as multidimensionally poor. This means they face overlapping deprivations in health, education, housing, sanitation, and access to clean water. These layers of hardship compound vulnerability and make escape from poverty far more difficult.

Children are among the most affected. In 2025, around 118 million children live in extreme poverty, with many suffering from chronic malnutrition, lack of schooling, and exposure to violence. Roughly 400 million children are living in or fleeing conflict zones, where poverty is intensified by displacement, trauma, and destroyed infrastructure.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) also reveals that poverty is closely linked to climate vulnerability. Poor communities are disproportionately exposed to floods, droughts, and extreme weather events, which erode livelihoods and deepen food insecurity. In many regions, climate shocks have reversed years of progress in poverty reduction.

Conflict remains a major driver of poverty. Wars in Sudan, Gaza, and Ukraine have displaced millions and devastated essential services. In Sudan alone, civil war has pushed millions into hunger and homelessness. In Gaza, the destruction of homes and infrastructure has left entire communities without access to basic needs.

Gender inequality continues to exacerbate poverty. More than half of the world’s women live in countries with severe sex-based discrimination, limiting their access to education, employment, and healthcare. Women and girls are more likely to experience poverty and less likely to escape it.

As the world approaches the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal deadline to end poverty, progress has stalled. Economic instability, climate change, and conflict threaten to undo hard-won gains. Addressing poverty requires more than aid—it demands justice, equity, and systemic change.

Despite relentless efforts, humanity will never fully eradicate poverty—because many of its root causes stem from the very systems people create. Economic models favouring profit over equity, policies that marginalise vulnerable groups, and exploitative global practices often deepen the divide.

While aid and development initiatives aim to help, they can unintentionally reinforce dependency or ignore structural injustice. Poverty persists not from lack of intention, but from flawed frameworks that perpetuate inequality while claiming to solve it.