The World Bank Group has released its flagship Atlas of Global Development 2026, revealing that global progress has slowed to its lowest pace in 75 years. The comprehensive interactive data platform, which synthesizes 121,249 data points from 107 datasets across 95 visualizations, tracks development across five key pillars: People, Prosperity, Planet, Infrastructure, and Digital.
The findings paint a sobering picture of global poverty reduction. According to the Atlas, if current trajectories continue, extreme poverty will not only stall but begin to rise steadily in the coming years. In 43 countries with high levels of extreme poverty, conditions are projected to remain unchanged or worsen. However, the report also identifies 10 countries, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where extreme poverty could fall below 10 percent by 2050 if current trends hold.
The data shows that approximately 831 million people worldwide still live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $3.00 per day. While this represents a dramatic decline from 2.3 billion in 1990, the pace of poverty reduction has slowed substantially over the last decade due to sluggish economic growth, high debt levels, the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, and climate-related shocks.
On gender equality, the Atlas highlights a stark gap in women's economic participation. Only 55 percent of women participate in the workforce globally, compared to 80 percent of men. At the current rate of progress, the world is more than 350 years away from reaching parity. Yet the report also demonstrates that rapid change is possible with the right policies: Turkiye saw women's labor force participation rise from 34 percent to nearly 42 percent in just one decade, advancing four times faster than the historical average.
Infrastructure gaps remain severe, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the number of people living without electricity has halved globally from 1.3 billion in 2000 to 666 million in 2023, nearly 90 percent of those still lacking access live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Only one in three rural residents in the region has electricity, compared to more than four in five urban residents. Ethiopia stands out as a success story, having reached close to 50 percent rural electrification from near-zero starting levels.
Separately, the International Monetary Fund has highlighted growing fiscal pressures on developing economies. In a recent analysis, the IMF noted that lower natural resource revenues and declining foreign aid are squeezing developing country budgets, making stronger domestic revenue systems more important than ever. The IMF has emphasized that policymakers must balance debt sustainability with the need for critical investments in human capital and infrastructure.
The World Bank's Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2026 further underscores these challenges, warning that overlapping crises have hit low-income countries the hardest. The report calls for stronger foundational investments in infrastructure, human capital, and institutions to ensure people can escape extreme poverty and build shared prosperity.
Sources: imf.org/worldbank.org
