Poverty and shared prosperity 2022

Report on the first comprehensive look at global poverty in the aftermath of an extraordinary series of shocks to the global economy. The COVID pandemic increased the global extreme poverty rate to an estimated 9.3% in 2020—up from 8.4% in 2019. This indicates that more than 70 million people were pushed into extreme poverty by the end of 2020, increasing the global total to over 700 million. 2020 marked a historic turning point. The world’s poorest people bore the steepest costs of the pandemic. Incomes in the poorest countries fell much more than incomes in rich countries. As a result, the income losses of the world’s poorest were twice as high as the world’s richest, and global inequality rose for the first time in decades. The poorest also suffered disproportionately in many other areas that directly affect their well-being. For example, they faced large setbacks in health and education, with devastating consequences, including premature mortality and pronounced learning losses. This report offers new analysis on how fiscal policy was used during the first year of the pandemic. It also sheds light on the impact of taxes, transfers, and subsidies on poverty and inequality in 94 countries before 2020, providing important new insights into the impacts of fiscal policy—not only during crises but also during normal conditions.