As of late 2025/early 2026, South Sudan is consistently ranked as the poorest country in the world by GDP per capita ($PPP), with over 80% of its population living in extreme poverty. The country's economic crisis is driven by prolonged civil war, political instability, corruption, and high dependence on agriculture and oil, causing severe food insecurity.
South Sudan is consistently ranked as the world's poorest country by various metrics, primarily GDP per capita, due to ongoing civil conflict, oil dependency, food insecurity, and fragile institutions, with over 80% of its population living in extreme poverty as of late 2025/early 2026. Other nations frequently cited among the poorest include Yemen, Burundi, Central African Republic, Somalia, and Madagascar, all facing severe humanitarian and economic challenges.
The United States is the world's richest country by a wide margin. It's a global hub for finance, tech, energy, and entertainment. From Silicon Valley to Wall Street, American firms shape worldwide trends. The country benefits from vast natural resources, advanced infrastructure, and a culture of innovation.
United States. The United States of America is a North American nation that is the world's most dominant economic and military power. Likewise, its cultural imprint spans the world, led in large part by its popular culture expressed in music, movies and television.
Iceland. Iceland stands at the top of countries with the lowest poverty rates with a poverty rate of 4.9% in 2021. In 2017, Iceland's poverty rate even hit 0%, according to the World Bank.
The pyramid shows that: half of the world's net wealth belongs to the top 1%, top 10% of adults hold 85%, while the bottom 90% hold the remaining 15% of the world's total wealth, top 30% of adults hold 97% of the total wealth.
Although India is expected to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals on extreme poverty in due time, a very large share of its population lives on less than $3.2 a day, putting India's economy safely into the category of lower middle income economies.
The highest poverty rates in the United States are in the U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands). American Samoa has the lowest per capita income in the United States — it has a per capita income comparable to that of Botswana.
Poverty in the Philippines has been linked to bad governance, corruption, and a political system dominated by political dynasties. The country's poorest provinces are ruled by political dynasties. Additionally, there are the problem of extractive institutions that hinder the country's economic growth.
There isn't one single "poorest city" as rankings change, but recent data (late 2024/2025) points to Gainesville, Florida, as having the highest poverty rate among certain city groups, while Houston, Texas, now leads among the largest U.S. cities, overtaking Philadelphia. Detroit, MI, Cleveland, OH, and Flint, MI, consistently rank among the poorest in overall poverty or income, often affected by industrial decline.
The states with the lowest incomes in the U.S. consistently include Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Kentucky, often appearing at the bottom for both median household income and poverty rates, indicating lower earnings and higher poverty levels, particularly in the South. These states face challenges with low wages and higher poverty, with Mississippi frequently cited as having the lowest median household income overall.
The following 44 countries were still listed as least developed countries by the UN as of December 2024: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, ...
1. South Sudan. With 82.3% of its population living in extreme poverty, South Sudan stands at the tragic forefront of this global crisis.
Least developed countries (LDCs) are low-income countries confronting severe structural impediments to sustainable development. They are highly vulnerable to economic and environmental shocks and have low levels of human assets.
According to the rankings, these are the 10 least happy cities in the U.S.:
Ranking of the least happy countries worldwide 2024, by score. Afghanistan was ranked the least happy country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report from 2025. The country scored only 1.36 on a scale from 0 to 10.