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

To understand the arc of a nation, we must look at the lives lived beneath the surface of the statistics. At MYRIAD, we view these data points as the essential measures of human experience, tracking the daily struggle of families to meet the international extreme poverty line of $2.15/day, 2017 PPP. Behind every percentage point lies the reality of food, shelter, and survival. While numbers alone cannot capture the texture of a life, they provide the skeleton of the human story in Somalia across three centuries.

For over a century, the data reflects a period of profound stagnation, where extreme poverty remained locked at 80 % from the 1800s estimate through the 1900s estimate. Change began incrementally, with slow declines throughout the middle of the twentieth century. The pace of improvement shifted as the decades progressed, moving from 68.33 % in the 1960s to 55 % by the 1980s. Following the 2010s at 45 %, we now find that in the 2020s, extreme poverty in Somalia stands at 35 % — ranking #149 of 157 countries.

If you were born in the 1800s estimate, the mathematical probability of living in extreme poverty was 80 %. Today, a child born into the 2020s faces a statistical landscape of 35 %. The projections ahead suggest a continued trajectory of reduction, reaching 26.25 % in the 2030s and potentially falling to 3.5 % by the 2100s projection. These figures describe a long-term transition from widespread scarcity toward a future defined by increased stability. We invite you to compute your own parallel lives by exploring how these global trends intersect with your own origins.