Fordham’s Pope Francis Global Poverty Report 2025

Global Poverty Scorecard

​Based on the most recently available data for the year 2025, the Global Poverty Gap is 25.5%, unchanged from the previous year. With the advent of the Global Pandemic, the Global Poverty Gap worsened until 2022. In 2023, the Global Poverty Gap indicated the beginning of a recovery; however, this recovery has stalled since 2024. 
 
The Global Poverty Gap is simply the global average of the relevant world population that lacks access to the seven basic human needs fundamental to human dignity, as identified by Pope Francis in his 2015 address to the United Nations General Assembly. Pope Francis’s Seven Primary Indicators include four indicators of material welfare — access to water, food, housing, and employment. — and three indicators of spiritual freedom — access to education, gender equity, and religious freedom. 
 
On the positive side, recent one-year trends show that the gaps in access to water, adequately remunerated employment and education have narrowed. On the negative side, the gaps in access to housing, and gender equity have not improved. And on the more distressing side, the gaps in access to food and religious freedom have widened. 
 
For each indicator, the most recently available data show the following: 
Water 
8.8% of the world’s population lacked access to water in 2022, leaving roughly 707 million people without basic access to an improved drinking water source, such as a well with a collection time not exceeding 30 minutes. 
 
Food 
9.1% of the world’s population was unable to obtain their minimal nutritional needs in 2022, resulting in approximately 730million people being undernourished. 
 
Housing 
16.4% of the world’s population lived in substandard housing in 2023, leaving approximately 1.3 billion people living in housing where roofs, walls, or floors were either lacking or made from substandard materials, such as cardboard, dung, or earth. 
 
Employment 
21.4% of the world’s labor force lacked adequately remunerated employment in 2024, leaving approximately 810 million workers without work or employed at a wage below the poverty wage of $3.65 per day. 
 
Education 
12.6% of the world’s adult population was illiterate in 2023, leaving nearly 767 million adults who cannot read, write, or comprehend a simple statement about their daily life. 
 
Gender Equity
51.3% of women and girls in the world in 2023 resided in societies that severely discriminate against them, leaving roughly 2.0 billion women and girls living in countries where their health and survival are threatened. 
 
Religious Freedom 
59.0% of the world’s population in 2022 resided in countries where religious freedom is severely restricted, leaving close to 4.7 billion people living in societies that face severe government restrictions, such as banning particular faiths, prohibiting conversion, or giving preferential treatment to one or more religious groups. 
 
Fordham University, Bronx, New York.