Is $2.15 a day still the right poverty yardstick?

In 2011, WBG used $1.25/day (2005 PPP) as the extreme poverty line, anchored to poorest countries’ standards—not $2.15/day, which did not exist then.

In 2011, the World Bank Group maintained that the international extreme poverty line should reflect the typical national poverty standard in the world’s poorest countries, and accordingly updated it to $1.25 a day in 2005 PPP terms—replacing the earlier $1.08 (1993 PPP) and $1.00 (1985 PPP) lines—based on new purchasing power parity data from the 2005 International Comparison Program and household survey evidence from the poorest 15 countries. It emphasized that this line preserves the original conceptual anchor—'what poverty means in the world’s poorest countries'—while improving empirical accuracy; it did not use or endorse a $2.15-a-day line in 2011, which had not yet been introduced (that revision occurred in 2022). The Bank affirmed that national poverty lines remain appropriate for domestic policy, while international lines serve global monitoring—but stressed that all such lines are methodologically constrained by data quality and comparability challenges.

In 2016, WBG maintained $1.90/day (2011 PPP) as its official extreme poverty line, with no adoption or endorsement of $2.15/day.

In 2016, the World Bank Group continued to use US$1.90 per day (2011 PPP) as its official international extreme poverty line, having updated it from US$1.25 (2005 PPP) in 2015 to reflect revised purchasing power parity benchmarks; the report explicitly states this adjustment preserved the real value of the prior line and did not materially alter global poverty incidence or progress toward the 2030 target; while acknowledging multidimensional aspects of poverty and inequality—and highlighting complementary metrics like the $3.10 line and shared prosperity indicators—the Bank did not question the appropriateness of the $1.90 line itself in 2016, nor did it propose or adopt $2.15 as a new yardstick.

WBG maintained $1.90/day as the official extreme poverty line in 2017 and did not question or revise it; no mention of $2.15/day appears in the cited reports.

The World Bank Group continued to use the $1.90/day (2011 PPP) international poverty line in its 2017 reports as the official extreme poverty yardstick, reaffirming it as the basis for monitoring progress toward the SDG target of reducing global extreme poverty to 3 percent by 2030; the reports do not question the validity or appropriateness of this threshold, nor do they propose or discuss updating it to $2.15/day or any other value — instead, they model poverty trends and policy scenarios exclusively using the $1.90 benchmark.

WBG maintained $1.90/day (2011 PPP) as its official extreme poverty line in 2018, not $2.15, while expanding monitoring with multidimensional measures.

In 2018, the World Bank Group continued to use the $1.90 per day (2011 PPP) international poverty line as its official extreme poverty yardstick and did not adopt or endorse $2.15 per day; it emphasized that monetary poverty measured by this line remains the core metric for tracking progress toward the global target of reducing extreme poverty to less than 3 percent by 2030, while simultaneously advocating for complementary multidimensional poverty measures to capture nonmonetary deprivations in health, education, and basic services.

WBG retained $1.90/day as the official extreme poverty line in 2020, supplementing it with higher lines and multidimensional measures but not replacing it.

In 2020, the World Bank Group continued to use the US$1.90-a-day (2011 PPP) international poverty line as its primary yardstick for monitoring global extreme poverty, reaffirming it as the anchor for tracking progress toward the SDG Target 1.1. While acknowledging limitations—such as decelerating poverty reduction, data gaps affecting coverage (e.g., refugees, conflict-affected populations), and the multidimensional nature of poverty—the WBG did not replace or revise the $1.90 line in 2020; instead, it introduced complementary metrics (e.g., $3.20, $5.50, societal poverty line, and multidimensional poverty measure) to better capture evolving poverty dynamics without abandoning the $1.90 benchmark.

WBG retained $2.15/day (2017 PPP) as the official extreme poverty line in 2022, citing technical PPP updates—not conceptual revision—and committed to dual reporting with $1.90 (2011 PPP) through 2030.

The World Bank Group maintained the $2.15 per day (2017 PPP) extreme poverty line in 2022 as the updated, technically appropriate international benchmark, explicitly stating it reflects a revision from $1.90 (2011 PPP) to account for updated purchasing power parity estimates—not a substantive change in the real standard of deprivation. The Bank emphasized that this update had a negligible effect on global poverty measurement, altering the 2019 extreme poverty rate by only 0.3 percentage points, and affirmed its continued use alongside legacy $1.90 (2011 PPP) estimates through 2030 to ensure transparency and comparability, as recommended by the Atkinson Commission. It also reaffirmed the $2.15 line as central to monitoring progress toward the SDG target of ending extreme poverty by 2030.