Global Poverty Increases

According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has pushed an additional 31 million people worldwide into dire poverty, reversing global progress on eliminating poverty by four years. The pandemic has led to a significant reversal in several international health efforts. Instead of having tens of millions of people being brought out of extreme poverty, 31 million more people have slipped into poverty, with stagnation in progress on other indicators, from nutrition to childhood vaccinations to education. The percentage of the global population living in extreme poverty, which is defined as living on $1.90 per day, had fallen from 37% to 9% over the last two decades. The economic consequences of the pandemic will also slow progress toward gender equality and lead to more children getting sick or dying from diseases that were largely considered eradicated.