World Bank Benchmark Poverty Line in Dollars

The Copenhagen Declaration at the “World Summit on Social Development” describes poverty as “a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs such as food, shelter, safe drinking water, sanitation, health, education, and information”.

Traditionally, World Bank has used $1.25 per person a day benchmark for “extreme poverty. This benchmark is based on the average of the national poverty lines of the world’s 15 poorest countries. The $1.25 line was originally defined as the simple average of the national poverty lines for fifteen very poor countries. In 2015, the benchmark poverty line has been updated to $1.90 per person per day.