For centuries, average incomes barely moved. Since around 1820, they have risen roughly fourteen-fold – and the pace picked up after 1950, as more and more countries joined in.
For most of history, almost everyone lived in what we would call extreme poverty today. Industrialisation, trade, education and better institutions changed that – first in Europe and North America, then across Asia and Latin America.
About 850 million people still lived on less than $3 a day in 2023, increasingly concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and in countries affected by conflict. Progress there has slowed, and the World Bank expects poverty reduction to be harder in the coming years.