How many people is the COVID-19 pandemic pushing into poverty? A long-term forecast to 2050 with alternative scenarios

PLoS One. 2022 Jul 8;17(7):e0270846. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270846. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the course of human development. In this manuscript we analyze the long-term effect of COVID-19 on poverty at the country-level across various income thresholds to 2050. We do this by introducing eight quantitative scenarios that model the future of Sustainable Development Goal 1 (SDG1) achievement using alternative assumptions about COVID-19 effects on both economic growth and inequality in the International Futures model. Relative to a scenario without the pandemic (the No COVID scenario), the COVID Base scenario increases global extreme poverty by 73.9 million in 2020 (the range across all scenarios: 43.5 to 155.0 million), 63.6 million in 2030 (range: 9.8 to 167.2 million) and 57.1 million in 2050 (range: 3.1 to 163.0 million). The COVID Base results in seven more countries not meeting the SDG1 target by 2030 that would have achieved the target in a No COVID scenario. The most pessimistic scenario results in 17 more countries not achieving SDG1 compared with a No COVID scenario. The greatest pandemic driven increases in poverty occur in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Africa South of the Sahara
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Income
  • Pandemics
  • Poverty

Grants and funding

Gift from Frederick S Pardee. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Additionally, no one receives a salary from Mr. Pardee—he contributed financial support through gift funding of the endowment of the Center.