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

To look at poverty is to look at the limitations of daily human choice. Behind these percentages are the granular realities of existence—the difference between having enough to sustain a household and the crushing weight of subsistence. Data often feels abstract, yet each shift in the share of people living below the international extreme poverty line represents millions of individual stories, each marked by the access they had to basic resources and stability. Understanding this trajectory is the fundamental starting point for mapping the collective experience of a population.

The arc of this transition in Taiwan spans three centuries. Starting in the 1800s estimate with 80 percent, the decline was initially a slow, steady erosion of hardship. Throughout the 1900s estimate at 75 percent, progress remained gradual. However, the pace accelerated as the decades passed, moving from 65 percent in the 1950s to 32.5 percent in the 1990s. In the 2020s, extreme poverty in Taiwan stands at 1.5 %, ranking #73 of 157 countries. Projections now point toward a future of 0.2 percent by the 2100s projection.

If you were born in a generation where 80 percent faced extreme poverty, your daily life was defined by the relentless pursuit of basic survival. Today, that reality has been fundamentally altered, as the probability of living below the $2.15/day, 2017 PPP threshold has plummeted. This transformation dictates the horizon of opportunity for every person born in Taiwan, fundamentally changing what it means to grow up, work, and age. Explore our data tools to see where you rank among everyone ever born.