Over one-fifth of people globally live below the poverty line, with 9% living in extreme poverty in 2021. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of extreme poverty were steadily declining, yet the pandemic, compounded with ongoing major conflicts and climate change, has caused the global extreme poverty rate to rise for the first time in over 20 years.
Ending poverty requires information about where people living in poverty are and what they need. Detailed and timely data is essential to understand poverty dynamics at the local level in order to respond where help is needed the most. Investments to ensure everyone is counted will set the basis for ending poverty in our generation.
We need to fight inequality and poverty—and not in 15 years, but now.