Fordham’s Pope Francis Global Poverty Report 2025

Part 1: Pope Francis’ Primary Indicators

​Food
We estimate that in 2022, approximately 730 million people, or 9.1% of the world’s population, were undernourished. In 2022, we see a continuing rise in both the number and the percentage of people suffering from undernourishment. 
 
Pope Francis’s selection of access to adequate food as another primary indicator is based on the belief that every individual has a right to life. In 2013, he described the inexplicable presence of hunger and food insecurity endured by nearly one billion people as “a global scandal.” Therefore, we need to choose a measure that explicitly captures the number of individuals who regularly experience food insecurity. 
 
We chose the prevalence of undernourishment as the best statistic to measure access to food. It captures food insecurity across an entire population by focusing on meeting individual energy requirements. The prevalence of undernourishment is defined as the percentage of a population that is continuously unable to consume enough food to meet their dietary energy requirements. The data for the prevalence of undernourishment is obtained from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO reports the data as three-year moving averages, with the most recent data from 2022. For 2022, data was available for 172 countries. 
 
International Distribution of Need 
The country with the least access to adequate nourishment is Somalia. Eight of the ten countries most deprived of nourishment are in Africa. 
 
The prevalence of undernourishment is concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in parts of Asia and the Western Hemisphere. 
 
Housing
We estimate that in 2023, about 1.3 billion people, or 16.4% of the world’s population, live in sub-standard housing. 
 
Pope Francis includes housing as one of his four primary indicators of material well-being. People require adequate physical space to create safe, secure, and nurturing homes for their families. Adequate housing with secure tenure can also provide households with regular access to basic sewage, safe drinking water, garbage collection, and electricity. 
 
We chose the percentage of population living in inadequate housing as the best measure for our housing indicator. Housing is inadequate if the floor is made of natural materials such as earth, mud, or dung, or if a dwelling has no roof or walls, or if either the roof or walls are constructed using natural or rudimentary materials. The data on inadequate housing is obtained from the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index Report, produced by the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) in partnership with the UNDP’s Human Development Report Office. Their database was started in 2010 and contains data ranging back to 2000. Data used for each country is the most recent available. For 2023, the OPHI database has data for 104 countries. 
 
Global Trend 
We are hesitant to comment on the global trend over the last nine years due to potential measurement errors and a change in the definition of inadequate housing in 2016. 
 
International Distribution of Need 
The country with the least adequate housing is Chad. Except for Afghanistan, all countries are located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Housing deprivation is highly concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as parts of Asia and 
 
Employment
We estimate that in 2024, approximately 810 million adults, or about 21.4% of the world’s labor force, lack paid employment above subsistence-level wages. The improvement in the global employment situation since the COVID-19 year of 2020 has slowed down. 
 
The last material indicator selected by Pope Francis is employment. During his address to the UN in 2015, Pope Francis listed “dignified and properly remunerated employment” as one of the indicators representing “essential material and spiritual goods.” Employment with adequate compensation is required “to enable these real men and women to escape from extreme poverty [and become] dignified agents of their own destiny. 
 
We chose the Distressed Labor Rate as the best statistic to measure the basic human need for dignified employment. The Distressed Labor Rate is calculated by adding the total number of unemployed individuals to the total number of employed individuals earning less than $3.65 per day, and then dividing this sum by the total number in the labor force. The labor force includes both the employed and the unemployed still seeking work. Following the practice of the International Labour Organization (ILO), we use a salary of $3.65 per day to define the threshold for poverty wages. The ILO considers that a minimum daily salary of $3.65 will allow an individual’s continued existence without assistance. Without assistance from community members, NGOs, or governments, the lives of individuals earning less than $3.65 may be at risk. The minimum daily salary of $3.65 is based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and takes into account the differences in consumption and prices among countries. 
 
The data needed to construct the Distressed Labor Rate is available from the ILO. The latest available data is for 2024 and covers 128 countries. 
 
Global Trend 
We observe that the world’s population that lacks access to adequately remunerated employment spiked in 2020, most likely brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The employment recovery since the pandemic has slowed. 
 
International Distribution of Needs 
The country with the highest distressed labor rate is Madagascar. Nine of the worst-performing countries are located in Sub- Saharan Africa. The higher distressed labor rates are concentrated in Sub- Saharan Africa and Asia. 
 
Fordham University, Bronx, New York.