A study by the Pew Research Center estimates that the number of poor people in the world in 2020 grew by 130 million people above the number estimated before the pandemic, 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 areas hardest hit by the fall in 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 poor, a decrease of 8 million people in the middle class and a decrease of 5 million people in the high-income segment.

Source: Pew Research Center