Islamabad (Commerce Desk): According to a World Bank report, Pakistan's poverty rate rose to 29% in 2025, while the economic gap between rich and poor also widened.
The report stated that the country's poverty rate stood at 22% in 2019 and increased by 7 percentage points by 2025. The World Bank identified inflation, rising prices of essential goods, unequal distribution of resources and declining workers' incomes among the reasons for this increase.
The report said low-income households were the most severely affected by these factors, while 72.6 million people in Pakistan were living below the poverty line in 2024.
According to the World Bank, Pakistan's score on the index used to measure economic inequality increased from 28.4 in 2018 to 32.7 in 2025.
The report further stated that 23% of Pakistan's population, or more than 57.6 million people, earned less than $3 a day.