The World Bank’s October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief for India says extreme poverty fell from 27.1% in 2011 to 2.6% in 2023, one of the fastest declines in the world. It also notes pronounced wage disparity and poverty concentrated in a few regions.

• The share of people below the Lower Middle-Income Country line ($4.20 a day) fell from 57.7% to 16.1%, lifting about 496 million people out of poverty.
• The Bank expects poverty to keep falling, but more gradually: 14.2% in 2026 and 12.1% by 2028 at the $4.20 line.
• The estimates rest on the three most recent household consumption surveys (2011-12, 2022-23 and 2023-24).

• Halving in a year: Extreme poverty was 5.3% in 2022-23, so it roughly halved in one year.
• Inequality: The Gini index was 23.0 in 2023, against 28.8 in 2011-12 and 25.5 in 2022-23. The Bank cautions that surveys may miss the consumption of richer households and understate inequality.
• Urban and rural: The $4.20 poverty rate is 8.6% in urban areas and 19.3% in rural areas.

• Consumption growth: Strong growth in household consumption.
• More jobs: Employment rose by about 134 million between 2017 and 2023, nearly twice the growth of the working-age population, driven by rural women entering paid work.
• Social transfers: Expanded transfers, including food subsidies.
• Non-monetary poverty: The Multidimensional Poverty Index (OPHI) fell from 53.8% (2005-06) to 16.4% (2019-21), and the World Bank’s MPI measure is 15.5% (2022-23).

• Wage gap: The median earnings of the top 10% of workers are about 13 times those of the bottom 10%.
• Geographic concentration: About 57% of India’s poor live in a belt from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal.
• Youth unemployment: It rose from 14.6% to 15.9% between the first quarters of 2025-26 and 2026-27, especially among rural young women.
• Low-quality jobs: Real earnings are broadly flat, and job growth is in low-productivity activities.

• No official line: India has had no official poverty line since the Tendulkar Committee (2011-12) line, so it relies on the World Bank’s lines and NITI Aayog’s National MPI.
• NITI Aayog’s MPI: Multidimensional poverty fell from 29.17% (2013-14) to 11.28% (2022-23), with about 24.8 crore people moving out.
• Data caution: The 2022-23 consumption survey changed its methods, so it is not fully comparable with 2011-12.

• Regional concentration: Further gains depend on productive jobs in the Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal belt.
• Job quality: Flat real wages and rising youth unemployment weaken the gains.
• Data gaps: Surveys are far apart, and the methods have changed.

• World Bank poverty lines (June 2025): $3.00 (extreme poverty), $4.20 (lower middle-income) and $8.30 (upper middle-income) a day at 2021 PPP, replacing $2.15, $3.65 and $6.85 at 2017 PPP.
• Purchasing Power Parity (PPP): The exchange rate that removes price-level differences between countries.
• Poverty and Equity Briefs: The Bank issues them twice a year, ahead of its Spring and Annual Meetings.
• Gini index: Ranges from 0 to 100, and a higher number means greater inequality.
• MPI: A global index by OPHI and UNDP that measures health, education and standard of living. India’s National MPI has added indicators on maternal health and bank accounts.
• Consumption survey: The Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, run by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.