World Bank predicts coronavirus will push between 40 million and 60 million people into poverty

World Bank.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The World Bank is predicting a rise in global poverty in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. If that holds true, it will be the first increase since 1998, Politico reports.

The international financial institution's economists believe the pandemic will push somewhere between 40 million and 60 million people into poverty, adding to the global rate, defined here as the percentage of the world's population living on less than $1.90 per day. The World Bank's "best estimate" is an increase of 49 million people. Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be the region most affected.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.