A United Nations global poverty index has risen for the first time since its creation in 2010, bringing the number of people affected to 1.2 billion, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported Monday.
In the 2026 edition of their annual report, the UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative research center counted 51.5 million more people living in “acute” poverty compared to the previous year.
UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo said the increase in poverty should be a “wake-up call for the world.”
“Behind these figures are 1.2 billion people facing hardships that reinforce one another: hunger, missed schooling and a lack of clean water or electricity. This is unacceptable,” he said in a press release.
More than half of those in acute poverty were children.
‘Mixed bag’
However, UNDP said a major factor in the recorded increase was population growth, and new data was only available for 13 of the 108 developing countries covered by the report.
While the total number of people in poverty has increased, the report provides a mixed picture.
Some 33 nations have halved the percentage of their people living in poverty as defined by the index in the past 15 years.
Those included six countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Among the countries that have made the most rapid progress were countries in Asia — China and Vietnam — UNDP said.
As in the previous year, the report found that the majority of the poorest people live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, specifically the subcontinent, the most densely populated region on Earth.
“In Egypt, Nepal, and Tajikistan, both the poverty rate and the number of people experiencing multidimensional poverty have decreased significantly,” the press release said.
In Angola and Zambia, the poverty rate has also declined, but population growth has more than offset this decrease, resulting in an increase in the number of people living in poverty.
The poverty index used in the report includes indicators such as the lack of adequate housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, food and education.