UN DESA’s flagship social-development report argues that economic insecurity, inequality and falling trust now reinforce one another in a single vicious cycle that is stalling the SDGs. Its sharpest finding is that insecurity has climbed the income ladder: living above extreme poverty, or even reaching what looks like the middle class, no longer buys stability. It ties directly to SDG 1, SDG 8 and SDG 10.
The headline
The report frames a “vicious cycle” in which insecurity feeds inequality, inequality erodes trust, and distrust drives polarization and policy paralysis. It reports that 60 per cent of people worldwide are struggling and 12 per cent are suffering, that almost 60 per cent are very worried about their jobs, and that over half hold little or no trust in their government. The remedy it proposes is a new policy consensus built on equity, economic security and solidarity.
The numbers
- Life satisfaction. 60 per cent of people worldwide are struggling and 12 per cent are suffering, per the latest Gallup World Poll rounds across 142 countries and areas (2023–2024).
- Poverty and near-poverty. Over 690 million people live in extreme poverty under $2.15 a day, and over 2.8 billion, more than a third of the world, live on between $2.15 and $6.85 a day.
- Job insecurity. Almost 60 per cent of people worldwide are very worried about losing their job and about not finding one (58.9 per cent, World Values Survey wave 7).
- Informal work. Informal employment remains the most prevalent form of work in low- and middle-income countries; its share has stayed stagnant in African countries and declined only slightly in Asian and Latin American countries since 2010.
- Inequality. Countries where income inequality has grown since 1990 are home to two thirds of the world’s population; the richest 1 per cent hold an income share of around 60 per cent and own more wealth than 95 per cent of humanity.
- Climate burden. In 2019 the poorest 50 per cent accounted for only 12 per cent of global emissions yet were exposed to 75 per cent of relative income losses from climatic shocks.
- Trust. Over half of the world’s people have little or no trust in their government, and less than 30 per cent think most people can be trusted.
The counting angle
The report is candid about what it cannot see. It notes there is no broadly agreed data framework to measure all dimensions of social cohesion, so trust is tracked through a patchwork of value surveys rather than an official indicator set. It also warns that many of the people furthest behind are statistically invisible, excluded from data collection or grossly undercounted: homeless people, those in prisons and institutions, refugee-camp and displaced populations, nomadic groups and slum dwellers. Its policy fix starts with counting, universal civil registration and legal identity as the first step to participation. The middle-income insecurity it flags is itself hard to count, because a $6.85 poverty line captures deprivation but not the fragility of a household one shock away from falling back.
Watch & read
- World Social Report 2025, the full report (UN DESA and UNU-WIDER).
- Global MPI 2025, the multidimensional view of who is poor and where the overlaps fall.
Figures are as reported in the World Social Report 2025 executive summary; underlying sources (Gallup World Poll, World Values Survey, World Bank, Oxfam) are cited in the report. Poverty thresholds are the report’s own $2.15 and $6.85 a day lines.