The Millennium Development Goals call for reducing the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day to half the 1990 level by 2015 - from 27.9 percent of all people in low and middle income economies to 14.0 percent. The Goals also call for halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger between 1990 and 2015.

If projected growth remains on track, global poverty rates will fall to 12.7 percent – less than half the 1990 level – and 363 million more people will avert extreme poverty. And while poverty would not be eradicated, that would bring us much closer to the day when we can say that all the world's people have at least the bare minimum to eat and clothe themselves. Progress in eradicating hunger, on the other hand, has been slow and the situation has been worsening in some regions.

Target 1  

Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day.
Target 2  

Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

 Target 1 Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day. 

• Regional charts on poverty incidence 
• Table on proportion of people living on less than $1 a day

Poverty level down since 1990, but progress is uneven: There were at least 118 million fewer people living in extreme poverty at the decade’s end than at its beginning. And if projected growth remains on track, global poverty rates will fall to 12.5 percent – less than half the 1990 level – and 366 million more people will avert extreme poverty. But rapid progress in Asia and a return to pre-transition poverty levels in Europe and Central Asia will do nothing to alleviate the crushing burden of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 314 million people will continue to live on less than $1 a day.

Progress toward the poverty goal and projections to 2015

Over the last decade, poverty rates have declined in many regions, except for Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The greatest number of poor people live in South Asia, but the proportion of poor is highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, where slow economic growth has left millions at the margins of survival.

Per capita consumption of $1 a day represents a minimum standard of living, yet more than a billion people live on less. In middle-income economies a poverty line of $2 is closer to the practical minimum. In 2001 an estimated 2.73 billion people were living on less than $2 a day - more than half population in the developing world. The numbers living on less than $2 a day will continue to rise in the Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Improvements will be greatest in East Asia and Pacific. But by 2015, if present trends continue, the poverty rate measured at this higher line will have fallen by no more than 20 percent from its 1990 level.

Target 2  Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

• Chart on child malnutrition
• Chart on proportion of people consuming too little food

Malnutrition plays a role in more than half of all child deaths. Malnutrition in children is caused by consuming too little food energy to meet the body's needs. Adding to the problem are diets that lack essential nutrients, illnesses that deplete those nutrients, and undernourished mothers who give birth to underweight children. 

Raising incomes and reducing poverty is part of the answer. But even poor countries need not suffer high rates of child malnutrition. They can make big improvements through such low-cost measures as nutrition education and micronutrient supplement and fortification. Other things that help include improving the status and education of women, increasing government commitment to health and nutrition, and developing an effective health infrastructure.