Brookings Institution | End of extreme poverty: A case for action and a plan to start
A decades-old ambition
For 50 years, from 1960 to 2010, poverty reduction was driven by rapid economic growth in poor countries, with most of the benefits accruing to the poor through more employment, better wages, and higher agricultural productivity. By 2015, there were 1.1 billion fewer people in extreme poverty than in 1990. The hope that the remaining 840 million people could be lifted out of extreme poverty by 2030 became the foundation of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Since 2015, however, poverty has become increasingly concentrated in a few fragile states with limited prospects for private investment or growth. Over the past decade, poverty reduction has stalled: About 800 million people still lived in extreme poverty in 2025, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for roughly 67% of all people living in extreme poverty.
