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

To grasp the scale of extreme poverty in Colombia is to look past the abstract weight of statistics and into the daily reality of survival. Behind these percentage points are families navigating the threshold of 2.15/day, 2017 PPP. This measurement defines a life where the most basic requirements—sustenance, shelter, and security—are perpetually precarious. Every decimal represents a shift in the collective endurance of a population, tracing how millions moved from a state of total economic vulnerability toward a more stable existence within the borders of their home country.

The arc from the 1800s estimate 72.58 to the 2020s 6 reveals a fundamental transformation. In 1900 it was 63.8 %, marking a century of slow, systemic transition. Throughout the decades, the share of people living below the international extreme poverty line declined steadily, moving through 41.64 in the 1940s and 18.7 in the 1980s. Today, Colombia ranks #111 of 157 countries. Projections suggest this trajectory will continue, eventually reaching 0.6 by the 2100s projection, signaling the near eradication of a condition that defined the lives of ancestors for generations.

If you were born in the 1800s, your life was statistically anchored to an extreme poverty rate of 72.58, a reality starkly different from the experience of a citizen today. Currently, at 6 %, the landscape of opportunity and risk has shifted irrevocably. While projections for the 2030s projection anticipate 4.5 and the 2050s projection expect 2.53, each individual story remains tethered to these evolving national numbers. These data points offer a way to measure the distance between the lives of those who came before and the potential of those yet to be born.

Use our interactive tool to see where do YOU rank among everyone ever born?