India’s remarkable poverty reduction: How nearly 500 million people escaped poverty in just 12 years

From the report

An extraordinary development achievement offers lessons for the developing world, but sustaining progress will require more jobs, inclusive growth and a determined fight against inequality.

India has achieved a remarkable milestone in its development journey, lifting an estimated 496 million people out of poverty between 2011 and 2023, according to the World Bank’s October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief. This achievement represents one of the most significant poverty-reduction stories in recent history. At a time when many developing economies continue to struggle with rising living costs, unemployment and widening income inequality, India’s progress offers an important example of how economic growth, targeted social protection and effective public policies can work together to improve millions of lives.

The scale of this transformation becomes clearer when examining the poverty figures. The proportion of India’s population living in extreme poverty, measured against the international threshold of US$3 per person per day in 2021 purchasing power parity (PPP), declined from 27.1 per cent in 2011 to just 2.6 per cent in 2023. Meanwhile, poverty measured against the lower-middle-income country threshold of US$4.20 per person per day fell from 57.7 per cent to 16.1 per cent over the same period. These figures demonstrate a substantial improvement in living standards across one of the world’s most populous nations.