India Poverty Rate: 5.3% Live Below $3 a Day, World Bank Data Shows
India has made substantial progress in reducing the number of people living at the lowest international poverty threshold, but the picture changes considerably when a higher benchmark is used.
The World Bank estimates that 5.3% of India’s population was living below $3 a day in 2022-23, using purchasing-power parity (PPP) based on 2021 prices. That amounted to about 75.2 million people.
The figure is based on India’s 2022-23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey and the World Bank’s revised international poverty lines. The $3 threshold replaced the previous $2.15-a-day international extreme-poverty line after the World Bank updated its purchasing-power benchmarks in 2025.
But the lower figure does not mean poverty has disappeared.
At the World Bank’s $4.20-a-day poverty line for lower-middle-income countries, India’s poverty rate stood at 23.9% in 2022-23, equivalent to roughly 342.3 million people.
That difference is central to understanding India’s latest poverty numbers.
The poverty line changes the picture
The World Bank’s revised $3-a-day threshold is designed as an international measure of extreme poverty. It is not an Indian national poverty line and should not be interpreted as a statement that anyone earning or consuming more than $3 a day is economically secure.
The World Bank’s own analysis shows how sensitive the headcount is to the threshold. Under the $3 line, the share of Indians below the poverty threshold fell from 27.1% in 2011-12 to 5.3% in 2022-23. At the $4.20 line, the corresponding decline was from 57.7% to 23.9%.
The distinction matters because millions of households that have moved above the extreme-poverty line can still have relatively low consumption and remain vulnerable to economic shocks.
The World Bank’s June 2025 update also changed the international purchasing-power framework used for these calculations. The new $3 line in 2021 PPP is not directly equivalent to the former $2.15 line in 2017 PPP.
Millions remain below the broader threshold
The 23.9% figure at $4.20 provides a broader view of living standards.
The World Bank document estimates that about 342.32 million Indians were below that threshold in 2022-23. By comparison, the number below the $3 line was about 75.24 million.
The gap between those figures illustrates why a single poverty statistic can give an incomplete picture.
India’s economic progress has lifted large numbers of people above the most severe poverty threshold. Yet a considerably larger population remains below the standard the World Bank uses for lower-middle-income economies.
The World Bank’s India analysis also reports a multidimensional poverty rate of 15.5% for 2022-23. That measure goes beyond consumption and considers several dimensions of deprivation.
Rural and urban poverty remain different
Poverty is not distributed evenly across India.
The World Bank’s poverty assessment reports a higher poverty rate in rural areas than in urban areas at the broader lower-middle-income threshold. The report puts the rural rate at 27.7%, compared with 14.3% in urban areas.
That difference reflects the continuing importance of rural living standards, employment opportunities and access to economic resources in India’s poverty profile.
The concentration of poverty also varies geographically. The World Bank’s assessment found that a group of India’s poorest states continued to account for a substantial share of people living in extreme and multidimensional poverty.
The data needs to be read with some caution
India’s latest poverty estimates are based on the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey for 2022-23, after a long gap in comparable official consumption data.
The World Bank has undertaken extensive adjustments to the survey data, including work related to prices and comparability. Its report on India’s poverty trends also discusses changes in survey methodology and the transition from paper-assisted to computer-assisted data collection during the 2022-23 survey.
That means the figures are useful for assessing the broad direction of poverty, but comparisons across different survey years need to be interpreted carefully.
The Indian government has also cited the World Bank’s revised estimates. A July 2025 Lok Sabha response recorded the 2022-23 rates as 5.3% at $3 a day and 23.9% at $4.20 a day, while noting the change in international poverty thresholds.
The government’s Economic Survey 2025-26 likewise reported the two World Bank estimates and cautioned that the revised poverty lines are not directly comparable with the earlier thresholds.
Poverty reduction does not end with the lowest threshold
The latest numbers show two things at once.
First, the share of India’s population living below the World Bank’s revised extreme-poverty line has fallen substantially over the past decade. Second, using a higher benchmark produces a much larger estimate of people living with relatively low levels of consumption.
That distinction is particularly important in a country as large as India. Even a single-digit poverty rate represents tens of millions of people.
The World Bank’s current data therefore provides a more nuanced picture than either a claim that poverty has been eliminated or a claim that India’s economic progress has had little effect on living standards.
The latest comparable survey data points to a major reduction in extreme consumption poverty. At the same time, the much larger number below the $4.20 threshold indicates that economic vulnerability remains widespread.
For now, the 2022-23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey remains the key evidence base behind these estimates, while future household consumption data will provide the next opportunity to measure how India’s poverty profile has changed.
