A study by the Pew Research Center estimates that the number of people living in poverty worldwide in 2020 grew by 130 million above the pre-pandemic estimate, while the number of people in the middle class was 34 million lower than the projection prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. The areas most affected by the increase in the number of poor people are South Asia—especially India—and sub-Saharan Africa. The hardest hit by the decline of the middle class, meanwhile, were South and East Asia and the Pacific. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the study estimates an increase of 5 million people in the number of low-income people, a decline of 8 million people in the middle class, and a decline of 5 million people in the high-income segment.

Source: Pew Research Center