Poverty rates in OECD countries

Poverty rates in OECD countries as of 2023

Characteristic	Percentage of population
Costa Rica	21.2%
United States	18.1%
Israel*	16.8%
Chile*	16.3%
Latvia	16.2%
Lithuania	15.6%
Mexico*	15%
Croatia	15%
South Korea*	14.9%
Bulgaria	14.6%
Estonia	14.4%
New Zealand*	14.3%
Spain	14.1%
Turkey*	13.2%
Romania	12.7%
Italy	12.6%
United Kingdom	12.6%
Canada	12.2%
Greece	12%
Germany*	11.6%
Portugal	11.4%
Switzerland*	10.7%
Hungary*	9.9%
Luxembourg	9.6%
Austria	9.3%
Poland	8.8%
Slovenia	8.8%
France	8.7%
Slovak Republic	8.3%
Sweden	8%
Norway*	8%
Ireland	7%
Netherlands	7%
Finland	6.8%
Belgium	6.3%
Denmark*	6.3%
Czechia*	5.5%

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Release date

February 2026

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

2023 or latest available

Supplementary notes

OECD database accessed on February 13, 2026

*2022 data

The poverty rate is the ratio of the number of people whose income falls below the poverty line and the total population; the poverty line is here taken as half the median household income.
Income is defined as household disposable income in a particular year. It consists of earnings, self-employment and capital income and public cash transfers; income taxes and social security contributions paid by households are deducted. The income of the household is attributed to each of its members, with an adjustment to reflect differences in needs for households of different sizes.

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Out of all OECD countries, Costa Rica had the highest poverty rate as of 2023, at over 21 percent. The country with the second-highest poverty rate was the United States, with 18 percent. On the other end of the scale, Czechia had the lowest poverty rate at 5.5 percent, followed by Denmark.

The significance of the OECD

The OECD, or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, was founded in 1948 and is made up of 38 member countries. It seeks to improve the economic and social well-being of countries and their populations. The OECD looks at issues that impact people’s everyday lives and proposes policies that can help to improve the quality of life.

Poverty in the United States

In 2022, there were nearly 38 million people living below the poverty line in the U.S.. About one fourth of the Native American population lived in poverty in 2022, the most out of any ethnicity. In addition, the rate was higher among young women than young men. It is clear that poverty in the United States is a complex, multi-faceted issue that affects millions of people and is even more complex to solve.