Poverty leaves families without the necessities they need to thrive, from nutritious meals and safe water to even basic medical care. While global poverty has decreased over the years, that progress has slowed.
Poverty remains one of the most critical crises threatening the well-being of millions of families, many of whom Compassion serves.
To understand the impact of poverty, let’s explore the realities behind the numbers and the urgent challenges that remain.
7 Poverty Facts You Should Know
1. Many Families Live on a Few Dollars a Day
Extreme poverty means living on less than $3.00 per day. Also known as abject poverty, extreme poverty is the most severe form, depriving children and families of basic human needs.
With only $3.00 a day or less, families must make impossible decisions. Do they buy some rice for a meal or save for rent? Do they patch their leaking roof or pay for the school supplies their child needs to keep learning?
At the same time, these families may not have access to safe water, medical care or even quality work to try and earn more income. Living on so little forces families into a constant struggle to survive, leaving no room for opportunity or even hope for a brighter tomorrow.
Explore the true cost of poverty that numbers can’t show.
2. Millions Live in Extreme Poverty Around the World
What percentage of the world lives in poverty? According to the World Bank, 811 million people live in extreme poverty around the world (per September 2026 data). That’s nearly 10% of the global population.
But extreme poverty is just one measure of poverty. While extreme poverty is the most severe form, millions more than this 10% struggle to afford the basics they need for their families.
3. Africa Is Home to the Most People Living in Poverty
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest poverty rates in the world. According to the World Bank, while only 16% of the world’s population lives in sub-Saharan Africa, it’s home to 67% of people living in extreme poverty (as of 2024).
Poverty in Africa is driven by conflict and displacement, climate extremes and even government instability. Africa is also a continent hit hardest by the ongoing global food crisis, leaving many children and families at risk of hunger.
4. Children Are the Most Vulnerable
Poverty has a greater impact on children. Children in poverty can’t access the essentials they need to grow, from nutritious meals to education. When families struggle, children often face malnutrition, miss school and suffer long-term developmental setbacks. These early impacts can shape a child’s entire future.
Around 412 million children live in extreme poverty globally, which is over half of the total of those impoverished.
5. Women Experience Higher Rates of Poverty
According to recent data from the World Bank, 10 million more women face poverty than men. Historically, women have suffered higher rates of poverty because they often don’t have the same opportunities to go to school, earn incomes or make decisions about their lives.
For example, in some places, harmful traditions like child marriage can prevent girls from building stable futures. Other challenges, such as period poverty, make it even harder for women and girls to stay healthy, attend school and pursue opportunities that could lift them out of hardship.
6. Poverty Is Life-Threatening
Living without necessities has serious consequences, especially for children. For example, without nutritious meals, they’re at risk of malnutrition that can stunt growth, while a lack of medical care can place them at risk of dangerous illness and disease.
These effects of poverty on a child’s health can be deadly. More than 3 million children die from hunger-related causes every year. And in 2024, 4.9 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday, with preventable and treatable illnesses like pneumonia and diarrhea as leading causes.
7. Progress Is Real, But Poverty Remains
Poverty has reduced drastically in the past several decades. According to the World Bank, about 10% of people worldwide live in extreme poverty today, compared to 60% in 1950. Despite this incredible progress, poverty remains.
The World Bank states that about half of the world’s impoverished live in just eight countries. And out of those, five have seen an increase in poverty: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Pakistan and Sudan.
These poverty facts highlight this truth: There’s still work to be done. Millions of children are still living in poverty, and it’s our mission at Compassion to release them from it in Jesus’ name.
Poverty Rates in the Countries Compassion Serves
Compassion serves 29 countries (and counting) throughout Africa, Asia, Central America and South America. Each of these countries is home to children and families living in poverty, and hardship looks different in every community.
Let’s explore the reach of poverty in these countries by identifying how many people are forced to live on less than $3.65 a day — far from enough to meet their needs.
Note: Poverty rates are based on the pre-2025 World Bank poverty line for lower-middle-income countries ($3.65 per person, per day). This best aligns with how Compassion targets need. Data moves quickly — but children’s realities don’t change overnight. This data helps us identify long-term need and respond where help is most urgently required.
Bangladesh
Poverty rate: 26.3%
Challenges : Impoverished children in Bangladesh face a lack of education, weather extremes like severe flooding and limited resources as caregivers struggle to find steady work.
Bolivia
Poverty rate: 4.6%
Challenges: Children in Bolivia face education barriers, such as overcrowded schools and a lack of basic supplies. They’re also at increased risk of exploitation and harm through child labor and violence.
Brazil
Poverty rate: 6.1%
Challenges: Impoverished children in Brazil face challenges such as dangerous living conditions in remote areas and poor access to medical care. They also face increased levels of violence, from forced child labor to child trafficking and gang violence.
Burkina Faso
Poverty rate: 60.7%
Challenges: Those in Burkina Faso face limited access to education, lack of health care and chronic food insecurity. Natural disasters like devastating floods and droughts place already vulnerable children at higher risk.
Cambodia
Poverty rate: 77.3% of the families we serve live on less than $3.65 a day.*
Challenges: Children living in poverty in Cambodia face limited health care services, which places the country’s young population at risk. They also live in extreme spiritual poverty — 98% of Cambodians don’t know Jesus.
*Poverty rate specific to the households Compassion serves, not the entire population of Cambodia. Updated data on poverty for the entire population of Cambodia is unavailable from our source.
Colombia
Poverty rate: 13.1%
Challenges: Those impoverished in Colombia lack clean drinking water and necessities like nutritious meals, leaving them susceptible to malnutrition. And in some families, children must work to help their families provide, forcing them out of school.
Explore more about the challenges of poverty in Colombia and how Compassion is fighting back.
Dominican Republic
Poverty rate: 2.9%
Challenges: Children living in poverty in the Dominican Republic face high levels of crime and gang violence, leaving them at risk of physical and emotional harm. Many also live with caregivers who struggle to provide because they lack steady work, preventing them from accessing food, shelter and other necessities.
Ecuador
Poverty rate: 8.6%
Challenges: High unemployment rates mean that many impoverished families in Ecuador survive on little. Many of these families live in remote communities, without easy access to medical care, safe water and education, putting their lives at risk and limiting their future opportunities.
Ethiopia
Poverty rate: 70.3%
Challenges: Children throughout Ethiopia face many overlapping and dangerous hardships. For example, they often suffer severe shortages of food, clean water and medical care, threatening their lives. Sadly, approximately 181,228 children under the age of five die each year in Ethiopia.
Ghana
Poverty rate: 48.8%
Challenges: In Ghana, a lack of medical care is a serious challenge for those in poverty. For example, millions suffer from malaria without the resources to pay for prevention or treatment, leaving them dangerously ill. Other challenges include high rates of malnutrition and difficulty affording school supplies, forcing children out of school.
Guatemala
Poverty rate: 27%
Challenges: Malnutrition is a serious issue that children in Guatemala face. According to the World Food Programme, 46.5% of children under 5 are stunted, which is the highest rate in Latin America and the Caribbean. Education is also a challenge — many children, especially those in rural communities, can’t access a school, while others can’t afford to attend.
Learn more about poverty in Guatemala and Compassion’s response.
Haiti
Poverty rate: 58%
Challenges: Impoverished children in Haiti face many challenges worsened by crises like gang violence and food insecurity. Nearly 277,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition, and 125,000 are severely malnourished. Children living in poverty also face challenges such as a lack of medical care and difficulty affording school.
Honduras
Poverty rate: 21.7%
Challenges: In Honduras, impoverished children face crime and gang pressure, especially in neighborhoods marked by violence. They also face limited access to basic services like clean water, health care and education. Many families struggle with unemployment and unstable income, leaving children without consistent meals, medical care or schooling.
Indonesia
Poverty rate: 12.6%
Challenges: Families in Indonesia face limited job opportunities, leaving many without the money to afford basic needs. They often lack clean water, safe shelter, reliable medical care and sanitation resources like toilets. Children face disease, hunger and even violence, threatening their safety and well-being.
Kenya
Poverty rate: 67.5%
Challenges: In Kenya, food insecurity and a lack of medical care subject children to high rates of malnutrition and preventable diseases. According to UNICEF, two million children in Kenya suffer from stunted growth. Common natural disasters like droughts intensify these impacts by destroying food sources and reducing access to safe water.
Malawi
Poverty rate: 89.1%
Challenges: Malawi is one of the most impoverished countries in the world. Among the challenges children face are hunger, severe malnutrition, preventable disease, poor education quality and access, child labor and even early marriage.
Mexico
Poverty rate: 3.4%
Challenges: Families in Mexico must depend on jobs like farming that don’t provide steady income. This makes paying for essentials like shelter and food difficult. Unfortunately, many children drop out of school to help their families provide. Children face other challenges too, such as a lack of health services in their communities and an increased risk of violence and exploitation.
Myanmar
Poverty rate: 19.7%
Challenges: In Myanmar, millions of families and children are internally displaced, without access to education, medical care, safe water and nutrition. Millions more are suffering from malnutrition, threatening their well-being. According to the World Food Programme, 12.4 million people, including children, face acute hunger, with one in three children under 5 suffering from stunting (low height for their age).
Nicaragua
Poverty rate: 14.4%
Challenges: Many families living in poverty in Nicaragua live in rural areas where they must work low-paying temporary or informal jobs to get by. These families can’t afford basic needs like shelter or food, let alone education. In fact, the financial strain forces many children to drop out of school, sometimes working to help provide.
Peru
Poverty rate: 9.4%
Challenges: Impoverished children in Peru suffer high rates of malnutrition and anemia, especially in the remote communities of the Andes and the Amazon. Here, basic services like clean water and medical care are hard to get to, while food is hard to afford.
The Philippines
Poverty rate: 13.7%
Challenges: Many families in the Philippines must work seasonal or low-paying jobs without stability, leaving them to live on very little. Families struggle to pay for school supplies, food and medical care. The Philippines also faces many natural disasters that destroy homes and livelihoods, pushing families deeper into poverty.
Rwanda
Poverty rate: 61.4%
Challenges: In Rwanda, many children are forced to drop out of school because families can’t afford fees or supplies. Malnutrition impacts millions, leading to stunted growth. And according to UNICEF, only 57% of the population can access safe drinking water.
Sri Lanka
Poverty rate: 11.3%
Challenges: In Sri Lanka, impoverished children often live in rural communities where essentials like nutritious food and basic medical care are hard to come by. Many children are left suffering with malnutrition and disease, preventing them from growing as they should.
Tanzania
Poverty rate: 74.3%
Challenges: Impoverished children in Tanzania face chronic malnutrition, exploitation and limited access to education and medical care. Child marriage is common in Tanzania as struggling families feel they have no choice but to arrange early marriages for their daughters in hopes of finding relief from financial pressure.
Thailand
Poverty rate: 0.2%
Challenges: While the poverty rate is low in Thailand, there are pockets of extreme poverty, including along the borders and in remote communities. In these regions, caregivers survive on work like farming, making very little, especially after harvest season. Sadly, this means children often lack the essentials needed to thrive, from nutritious food to education.
Togo
Poverty rate: 58.8%
Challenges: Education is a leading challenge for impoverished children in Togo — many drop out because they lack support or the essential supplies needed to continue. Poor access to health care leaves many Togolese children malnourished, while preventable illnesses like malaria threaten their lives.
Uganda
Poverty rate: 71.8%
Challenges: Children in Uganda face serious health risks such as malnutrition and diseases like malaria, and they struggle to access the medical care to heal. Severe droughts and other natural disasters lead to food insecurity while a lack of income due to unavailable work prevents families from securing necessities like meals, school supplies and medication.
Zambia
Poverty rate: 81%
Challenges: Chronic malnutrition and forced child labor place children at serious risk in Zambia. These children also lack access to quality education, medical care and safe water. Girls specifically face early marriage, further restricting their ability to pursue opportunities beyond poverty.
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Poverty Facts: FAQs
What Is Poverty?
In economic terms, the definition of poverty is living on less than $3.00 a day. It means overwhelmed by need in all areas of life, lacking the essentials needed to thrive.
But the deeper truth is this: Poverty is a lie that tells children they don’t matter. It says, “Nothing will change. There’s no use in trying because nothing you do matters. Give up!” Faced with so many challenges, children give in to hopelessness, preventing them from reaching for brighter futures.
That’s why, at Compassion, we address this lie, sharing the love of Jesus with children in need. As they experience his love, they discover their true worth, empowering them to grow into who God intends them to become.
What Causes Poverty?
There are many causes of poverty, including war and conflict, natural disasters, limited access to medical care, systemic discrimination, poor infrastructure and even public health crises.
These causes are connected and often reinforce one another, leading to a cycle of poverty that feels nearly impossible to break.
How Does Poverty Affect Children?
The effects of poverty on children are many. For example, poverty hinders healthy physical growth and development while also shortening a child’s life expectancy. It can leave them hungry and sick with preventable diseases. The desperation of poverty can also place children at risk of life-threatening child abuse and exploitation.
These consequences bring overwhelming fear and consistent stress. Often, these children feel as if their circumstances will never get any better, no matter what they do, leaving them feeling hopeless and worthless.
What Keeps People in Poverty?
What keeps people in poverty isn’t a lack of effort or hard work— it’s barriers that compound. For example, caregivers living in poverty may struggle to provide nutritious meals. Children may then suffer from malnutrition and illness that keeps them out of school, preventing them from learning basic skills essential to finding steady work as adults.
And so the cycle continues, keeping families trapped in poverty generation after generation.
How Can We Fight Poverty?
Reducing poverty in the lives of children requires more than just financial aid or temporary relief. Instead, it requires us to faithfully meet the critical needs of each child over time, empowering them to create brighter futures. That’s how we break the cycle of poverty.
Compassion International does just that by caring for children body, mind and soul. At local churches in their communities, children hear the gospel and see it in action through nutritious meals, medical care, education, disaster relief and more.
It’s through this care that they grow into thriving disciples, equipped to leave poverty behind and help others do the same.
See the impact of Compassion’s work and how it’s changing the lives of millions.
Each of these poverty facts represents a child fighting to survive and a chance for us to step in. While poverty may look different in every country, its impact is the same: It steals a child’s opportunity, harms their health and robs them of the future God has for them.
Compassion is working to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name by coming alongside them with hope, love and care. You can join us by donating to a cause or sponsoring a child in need.