In June 2025, the number of people living in extreme poverty jumped up by 125 million. Nobody got poorer all of a sudden, but the World Bank changed the definition of extreme poverty. This is an excellent deep dive into what the poverty line actually is, how it gets calculated and why it got updated (it’s not just inflation).

From Weekly Filet #539, in August 2025.

A new poverty line. What changed, and why?

A new poverty line. What changed, and why?

ourworldindata.org

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