Extreme poverty
Topic: Poverty and Inequality: Measurement and Policy · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Extreme poverty means living below the World Bank's international poverty line (IPL). It is the most severe form of absolute deprivation. The line is stated in purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day. PPP adjusts for price differences between countries. The line is revised with each new PPP round. Since June 2025 it has been $3.00 a day at 2021 PPP, set as the median of the national poverty lines of 23 of the poorest countries. SDG 1.1 aims to end extreme poverty everywhere by 2030.
Example
At $3.00 a day, India's extreme poverty fell from 27.1% in 2011-12 (about 34 crore people) to 5.25% in 2022-23 (about 7.5 crore). Worldwide, about 838 million people were extremely poor in 2022. They are increasingly concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Don't confuse with
- National poverty lines: each country sets its own, such as India's Tendulkar line. SDG 1.2, which aims to halve poverty by 2030, uses these national definitions rather than the IPL.