NEW DELHI — India has lifted an estimated 496 million people out of poverty between 2011 and 2023, marking one of the fastest reductions in poverty worldwide, according to the World Bank's latest Poverty and Equity Brief published in October 2026.
The report found that the proportion of Indians living below the lower-middle-income poverty threshold of USD 4.20 per day declined sharply from 57.7 percent in 2011 to 16.1 percent in 2023, reflecting substantial improvements in household living standards over the 12-year period.
Extreme poverty, measured using the international threshold of USD 3 per person per day, also fell significantly, from 27.1 percent to just 2.6 percent during the same period.
The findings represent a major development for India, the world's most populous country, where poverty reduction has remained a central economic and social policy challenge for successive governments.
The World Bank attributed the progress primarily to strong consumption growth, increased employment opportunities, particularly for women, and the expansion of government social assistance programmes, including food subsidies.
Employment growth has played an important role in improving household incomes. Between 2017 and 2023, India's employed population increased by approximately 134 million people, nearly twice the growth of its working-age population.
Much of the increase was driven by women in rural areas entering paid employment, resulting in more income earners within households and improving their ability to meet essential living expenses.
The report also highlighted improvements in non-monetary measures of poverty, including access to education, basic services and living conditions.
According to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative's Multidimensional Poverty Index, the proportion of Indians experiencing multidimensional poverty declined from 53.8 percent in 2005–06 to 16.4 percent in 2019–21. The World Bank's own multidimensional poverty measure placed the rate at 15.5 percent in 2022–23.
Despite these improvements, the World Bank cautioned that significant economic inequalities persist and that the benefits of growth have not been distributed evenly across the population.
An estimated 80 percent of Indians were still living below the World Bank's upper-middle-income poverty benchmark of USD 8.30 per day in 2023, highlighting the large proportion of the population that remains below a higher international living-standard threshold despite the dramatic reduction in extreme poverty.
Regional disparities also remain substantial.
The report identified a geographical concentration of poverty across northern and eastern India, with states stretching from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal accounting for approximately 57 percent of the country's poor population.
Although rural households have experienced faster improvements in living standards than urban households, poverty remains more concentrated in rural communities, where productivity is generally lower and access to higher-paying employment opportunities is limited.
The World Bank warned that future poverty reduction would increasingly depend on generating productive employment in these economically disadvantaged regions.
Youth unemployment has emerged as another concern.
According to the report, India's youth unemployment rate increased from 14.6 percent in the first quarter of the 2025–26 financial year to 15.9 percent in the corresponding quarter of 2026–27, with the increase particularly affecting young women in rural areas.
The report also found that real earnings remained broadly unchanged despite employment growth, as much of the additional employment was concentrated in relatively low-productivity activities.
Income disparities between workers continue to be pronounced, with median earnings among the highest-paid 10 percent of workers approximately 13 times those of the lowest-paid 10 percent in 2023.
The World Bank further observed that poverty has become increasingly concentrated among households with limited education, fewer assets, unstable employment and a greater number of dependants.
Looking ahead, the institution projects India's poverty rate at the USD 4.20 daily threshold will decline further, from an estimated 14.2 percent in 2026 to 12.1 percent by 2028.
However, the projected reduction is expected to be more gradual than the progress recorded over the previous decade.
The World Bank noted that these forecasts are indicative and subject to revision as new labour market and macroeconomic data become available.
It also cautioned that improvements in household survey methodology may have contributed to some of the measured increases in consumption, while limitations in capturing the spending of wealthier households could result in an understatement of economic inequality.
The report presents India's poverty reduction as a substantial development achievement but underscores the continuing challenge of converting economic growth into sustained improvements in wages, productive employment and living standards across all regions and population groups. (Source: worldbank)
