The World Bank has updated its poverty lines several times to reflect rising living costs, better data on household spending, and shifts in national benchmarks. At the heart of these updates are Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs); tools that adjust for price differences between countries, allowing for fair comparisons of income and poverty across borders.
This latest 2025 update uses new PPP data from the International Comparison Program and reflects changes in national poverty lines, especially for extreme poverty. Here are the new poverty lines (per person per day):
- Low-income countries: $3 (up from $2.15)
- Lower middle-income countries: $4.20 (up from $3.65)
- Upper middle-income countries: $8.30 (up from $6.85)
These changes help ensure poverty measurement keeps pace with real-world conditions and that global efforts to reduce poverty remain grounded in accurate, up-to-date data.
Learn more.