End poverty in all its forms everywhere
Ending poverty requires more than raising incomes. It depends on decent work that pays a living wage (SDG 8), social protection systems that catch people when shocks hit, and a narrowing of the inequalities that concentrate deprivation among particular groups and places (SDG 10) — inequalities that also shape who gets access to health care and education in the first place (SDG 3).
Poverty today is increasingly a geography of fragility. An overwhelming and growing share of the world’s extreme poor live in countries affected by conflict, weak institutions or climate shocks, not simply low national income. Ending poverty (SDG 1) is therefore bound tightly to building the peaceful, capable institutions that can sustain progress (SDG 16).
Progress on SDG 1 remains far off track. In 2026, an estimated 826 million people — 10 per cent of the world’s population — live in extreme poverty on less than $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), a decline of only 3 percentage points since 2015. Extreme poverty is projected to fall only to around 9 per cent by 2030, with four in five of the remaining poor concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa or in fragile and conflict-affected countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, where extreme poverty rose 2 percentage points during the COVID-19 pandemic and only returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2025, now accounts for 71 per cent of the world’s extreme poor.
Social protection coverage has improved: 52.4 per cent of the global population received at least one benefit in 2023, up from 42.8 per cent in 2015 and, for the first time, covering more than half of humanity — yet 3.8 billion people remain unprotected, and coverage ranges from 79.6 per cent among older persons to just 16.7 per cent among the unemployed. Working poverty has also eased, with 7.9 per cent of employed people (284 million workers) living in extreme poverty in 2025, down from 11 per cent in 2015.
Financing has moved the wrong way, however: official development assistance grants targeting poverty reduction fell 8.7 per cent between 2023 and 2024, erasing a decade of progress and returning aid levels to where they stood in 2015. The full picture of official indicators is tracked by the UN Statistics Division in its annual SDG progress report.
The primary tracking reports for SDG 1 are the World Bank’s Poverty, Prosperity and Planet Report, which produces the headline global extreme-poverty estimates, and the ILO’s World Social Protection Report, published every two to three years, which tracks coverage gaps by scheme, group and region. The current World Social Protection Report 2024–26 documents the wide gap between coverage for older persons and for the unemployed.
The primary intergovernmental forum is the Commission for Social Development (CSocD), which meets each February in New York. CSocD64, held 2–10 February 2026, served as the first global follow-up milestone after the Second World Summit for Social Development, held in Doha in November 2025, where governments renewed commitments on poverty eradication, universal social protection floors and decent work. SDG 1 progress is also reviewed annually at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) each July in New York.
These organisations hold the lead mandates on poverty measurement, social protection and the intergovernmental follow-up process under SDG 1.
By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day
Proportion of the population living below the international poverty line by sex, age, employment status and geographic location (urban/rural)
By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
Proportion of population living below the national poverty line, by sex and age
Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions
Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable
Proportion of population covered by social protection floors/systems, by sex, distinguishing children, unemployed persons, older persons, persons with disabilities, pregnant women, newborns, work-injury victims and the poor and the vulnerable
By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance
Proportion of population living in households with access to basic services
Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, (a) with legally recognized documentation, and (b) who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and type of tenure
By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters
Number of deaths, missing persons and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population
Direct economic loss attributed to disasters in relation to global gross domestic product (GDP)
Number of countries that adopt and implement national disaster risk reduction strategies in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030
Proportion of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with national disaster risk reduction strategies
Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions
Total official development assistance grants from all donors that focus on poverty reduction as a share of the recipient country’s gross national income
Proportion of total government spending on essential services (education, health and social protection)
1.b Create sound policy frameworks at the national, regional and international levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions
Pro-poor public social spending
Climate — Global
COP27 is the “number one litmus test” of how seriously the world takes the toll on countries that suffer most from climate change, according to the UN Secretary-General. November’s summit must finally make good on promises to deliver climate action that ensures a sustainable future for all
Climate — Global
Even the most optimistic predictions show a significantly warmer planet by 2100. Rather than focusing on quick adaptive fixes, as many current plans do, countries must pursue climate-resilient development strategies that address the systemic nature of the climate crisis
Cities — Global
As the climate warms, and as behavior and practices shift to mitigate and adapt, what changes will there be to the nature and location of human settlements?
Economic development — Global
COVID has exacerbated already deep inequalities between rich and poor.
If left unchecked, the forces creating inequality will become even more
destructive as the climate crisis starts to bite, threatening all of Agenda 2030. The world must urgently redouble efforts to reverse these trends
Global governance — Global
Climate change, COVID-19, the war in Ukraine – these crises threaten to derail development for 1.7 billion of the world’s most vulnerable people. The international community must take swift, coordinated action now to put the SDGs back on track
Financing — Global, Sub-Saharan Africa
Global development finance has been thrown into disarray – first by the pandemic and now the war in Ukraine. Ramping up finance flows to LDCs in the short term might appear unrealistic, but it is more essential than ever if we’re to avoid even greater catastrophes ahead
Pandemic recovery — Global
The pandemic makes the SDGs even more relevant, even more critical to ensure that we leave no one behind
Health — Middle East and Northern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa
Despite the will, many developing countries lack the resources to deal with a problem that ravages at both the national and individual level. We need smarter, context-specific solutions on nutrition that can catalyze sustainable change
Economic development — Global
Coronavirus threatens to push already damaging levels of inequality to new extremes. Post-pandemic, we must go beyond lifting people out of poverty and tackle the deeper structural causes of inequality at all levels
Food systems and sustainable agriculture — Asia (Central, Eastern and Southern), Global, Sub-Saharan Africa
To balance the combined pressures of climate change and growing populations, we need to re-evaluate what we eat and where and how it’s grown
