World Bank highlights India's rapid poverty reduction, noting extreme poverty fell from 27.1% to 2.6%

Key facts

• India lifted an estimated 496 million people out of poverty between 2011 and 2023.
• The share of the population living in extreme poverty declined sharply from 27.1% to 2.6% according to the World Bank's October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief.
• The proportion of people living below the lower-middle-income poverty line of USD 4.20 per day, measured at 2021 purchasing power parity, fell from 57.7% to 16.1% during the period.
• The Multidimensional Poverty Index, measured by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, fell from 53.8% in 2005-06 to 16.4% in 2019-21.
• Employment increased by 134 million people between 2017 and 2023, which was nearly twice the growth in the working-age population.
• The World Bank projects the poverty rate at the USD 4.20-a-day threshold could fall from 14.2% in 2026 to 12.1% by 2028.