World Bank: India's Extreme Poverty Fell from 27.1% to 2.6%, but Good Jobs Are the Next Challenge
The World Bank's Poverty and Equity Brief for India (October 2026) says India saw one of the fastest falls in poverty in the world between 2011 and 2023.
Extreme poverty (people living on less than US$3.00 a day at 2021 prices) fell from 27.1% in 2011 to 2.6% in 2023.
At the higher lower-middle-income line of US$4.20 a day, poverty fell from 57.7% to 16.1%. About 49.6 crore (496 million) people moved above this line. In 2023, rural poverty at this line was 19.3% and urban poverty 8.6%. About 80% of Indians still lived below the US$8.30 upper-middle-income line.
About 13.4 crore (134 million) more people found work between 2017 and 2023, nearly twice the growth in the working-age population. Rising employment among rural women was a big part of this.
But much of the new work was in low-productivity activities, so real wages rose slowly. Youth unemployment rose from 14.6% (April to June 2025) to 15.9% (April to June 2026), with a sharp rise among young rural women.
The World Bank projects poverty at the US$4.20 line to fall from 14.2% in 2026 to 12.1% by 2028, more slowly than before. It says the next stage of poverty reduction depends on productive, better-paying jobs.
Poverty Measurement in India: Methods and Debates
Poverty measurement means deciding who counts as poor and how many such people there are. India mostly uses a poverty line: the money a person needs each month for basic needs. Anyone whose monthly spending (not income) is below the line is counted as poor, because spending is easier to measure honestly in a country with many farm and informal jobs. India also tracks non-money deprivation through the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), and international bodies like the World Bank use their own dollar-a-day lines to compare countries.
The headline "2.6% poor" uses the World Bank's extreme poverty line of US$3 a day. At the US$4.20 line that suits a lower-middle-income country, 16.1% of Indians were still poor in 2023, and most Indians remain below US$8.30. Which line you use changes the story, which is why UPSC often asks about poverty lines and who sets them.
Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) is India's main official survey of jobs and unemployment. It is run by the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). Survey teams visit households and ask what work each member did, if any. From this, the government calculates how many people work, how many are looking for work and what kinds of jobs they do. It was launched in April 2017 and revamped from January 2025 to give monthly and quarterly estimates for rural and urban India.
The job numbers in the World Bank brief, including the rise in youth unemployment from 14.6% to 15.9%, come from PLFS data. Quarterly youth figures use the 7-day Current Weekly Status, so they can rise or fall faster than the yearly usual-status figures.
Female Labour Force Participation in India
Female labour force participation means the share of women who are in the labour force, that is, women who are either working or actively looking for work. It is measured by the Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR). In India, this rate was among the lowest in the world for many years, at about 23% in 2017-18. Since then it has risen sharply, to about 42% in 2023-24, mainly because more rural women started working. How many women work, what work they do and how much they earn matters for growth, for poverty and for women's own independence.
The World Bank credits rising employment among rural women for a part of India's fast poverty decline from 2017 to 2023. But it also warns that youth unemployment, especially among young rural women, rose in 2026, showing that more women now want work than the economy is creating good jobs for.
- Report: World Bank Poverty and Equity Brief, India (October 2026)
- Extreme poverty (below US$3.00/day, 2021 PPP): 27.1% (2011) to 2.6% (2023)
- Lower-middle-income line (US$4.20/day): 57.7% (2011) to 16.1% (2023); about 49.6 crore people moved above it
- 2023 rural vs urban poverty (US$4.20 line): 19.3% vs 8.6%
- About 80% of Indians below the US$8.30/day line in 2023
- Projection (US$4.20 line): 14.2% (2026) to 12.1% (2028)
- New jobs, 2017 to 2023: about 13.4 crore, nearly twice the growth of the working-age population
- Youth unemployment: 14.6% (April to June 2025) to 15.9% (April to June 2026)
- World Bank poverty lines revised in June 2025: US$2.15 to US$3.00; US$3.65 to US$4.20; US$6.85 to US$8.30