Eliminating extreme poverty is the first objective of the SDGs. To achieve this goal, economies must generate gainful employment opportunities for the poor and vulnerable and provide requisite social protection benefits to them.
Read the full storyHide the full story
Key Trends
Developing Asia has made major gains in reducing extreme poverty since 2002, but more than one-quarter of a billion people still live in extreme poverty
Eradicating extreme poverty throughout Asia and the Pacific has been one of region’s greatest challenges. Those mired in such conditions struggle to meet basic needs, and often lack access to appropriate healthcare, education, clean water, and sanitation.
In developing Asia, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty—as measured by surviving on less than $1.90 per day at 2011 purchasing power parity—fell significantly in the early part of the new millennium, from 33.7% in 2002 to 7.0% in 2015 (see figure below). In absolute terms, this represented a decline from 1.11 billion people in extreme poverty to 264 million. The overwhelming majority of this decline occurred in East Asia (from 409 million people to 10 million) and South Asia (from 505 million to 202 million).
Extreme poverty fell in every subregion of Asia and the Pacific over the review period: Central and West Asia (from 29.3% in 2002 to 5.5% in 2015), East Asia (from 31.9% to 0.7%), the Pacific (from 45.6% to 25.0%), South Asia (from 39.7% to 13.3%), and Southeast Asia (from 24.7% to 5.5%).
The proportion of the world’s population living in extreme poverty fell from 25.6% in 2002 to 10.0% in 2015, largely due to the reduction in extreme poverty in developing Asia.
Proportion of the “working poor” to total population falling throughout developing Asia
Across developing Asia in 2018, the proportion of the employed population living in extreme poverty (i.e., the “working poor”) was less than 5% in 15 of the 27 economies with available data for this indicator. The share of the working poor as a percentage of the total population exceeded 20% in 6 economies (see figure on the right). The smallest proportions of the employed population living in extreme poverty in 2018 were found in Azerbaijan (0.02%), Mongolia (0.12%), and Sri Lanka (0.15%). The largest shares were observed in Afghanistan (37.6%), Uzbekistan (27.1%), and Papua New Guinea (PNG) (26.3%).
From 2000 to 2018, the share of the working poor as a percentage of the total population fell in all of the 27 reporting economies. The largest declines occurred in Cambodia (49.3 percentage points), Tajikistan (42.4 percentage points), and Nepal (40.3 percentage points).