Extreme Poverty in Austria: 1800 to Today (and Tomorrow)

To understand extreme poverty is to track the thin margin between survival and absolute deprivation. The international extreme poverty line is set at $2.15/day, 2017 PPP, a threshold that dictates the most basic access to food, shelter, and safety. When a population shifts from struggling for these daily necessities to participating in a modern economy, the fundamental quality of life changes. These statistics represent the cold, empirical reality of millions of lives lived within Austrian borders, marking the distance between historical scarcity and the relative stability observed in the present day.

The historical arc of Austria reveals a steady, rhythmic descent in deprivation. In the 1800s estimate, 38.7 percent of the population lived in extreme poverty. Through each subsequent decade, that share contracted: 33.15 in the 1830s estimate, 20.2 in the 1900s estimate, and 9.07 in the 1950s. By the 1980s, the figure dropped to 1.41. In the 2020s, extreme poverty in Austria stands at 0.3 %, ranking #19 of 157 countries. Projections suggest this share will eventually stabilize at 0.2 by the 2040s and remain there through the 2100s projection.

For someone born in the 1800s estimate, the prospect of escaping extreme poverty was a generational battle against pervasive scarcity. Conversely, an individual born in the 2020s enters a society where extreme poverty is statistically rare, shaped by two centuries of systemic economic transition. While projections suggest a floor of 0.2 in the 2090s projection, the gap between the past and the future remains vast. You can use these metrics to consider how the era of your birth defines the resources available to you.

See where you rank among everyone ever born.