Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — The poverty rate in Uzbekistan fell from 17% in 2021 to 5.8% in 2025, with about 3.7 million people moving out of poverty during the period, according to the World Bank’s “Uzbekistan Poverty and Equity Assessment: Towards Shared Prosperity and Opportunity for All,” prepared by its Europe and Central Asia regional department.
The report says poverty reduction in Uzbekistan has been among the fastest recorded in middle-income countries worldwide. Real per capita household consumption grew by an average of 7% annually in 2021–2024, placing Uzbekistan seventh among middle-income countries on this measure. Under the international poverty line for upper-middle-income countries of US$8.3 per day in 2021 purchasing power parity terms, Uzbekistan’s poverty rate declined from 38% to 12.4%. The country accounted for nearly 40% of the overall reduction in the number of poor people in the Europe and Central Asia region during the period.
Similar trends were recorded under other international poverty indicators. At the extreme poverty line of US$3 per day in 2021 purchasing power parity terms, Uzbekistan’s rate fell from 4.4% in 2022 to 2.3% in 2025. Under the World Bank’s multidimensional poverty index, which considers not only income but also access to basic services, the rate declined from 4.4% in 2021 to 2.7% in 2024. The prosperity gap — a measure of how much average incomes would need to increase to reach the level of high-income countries — narrowed from 3.8 in 2021 to 2.4 in 2025.
At the same time, the middle class expanded rapidly. Its share of the population increased from 37% to more than 72% between 2021 and 2025, while the share of vulnerable people — those at risk of falling back below the poverty line — declined from 45.7% to 22.1%. Analysis of panel household survey data for 2019–2024 shows that 44% of the population moved into a higher economic class, while only 11% experienced downward mobility. About one-third of those who were poor in 2019 remained poor in 2024. The upper segment of the middle class in Tashkent more than tripled during the period, although progress was also recorded in other regions and rural areas.
The World Bank noted that poverty in Uzbekistan is no longer predominantly a rural phenomenon. The gap between urban and rural poverty narrowed from 5.9 to 1.2 percentage points as rural poverty declined faster than urban poverty. However, vulnerability indicators remain high in almost all regions, except Tashkent, where at least one-fifth of the population remains at risk. Vulnerability to poverty has a weak correlation with climate risks, which, according to the report’s authors, calls for more targeted and geographically differentiated social support measures.
According to the report, increased employment among poor men was a key driver of poverty reduction. The share of poor men with paid employment increased from 18% to 46% in 2022–2025 amid a decline in labor migration and a shift from agriculture and self-employment toward paid employment within Uzbekistan. Real wages among poorer households increased by 11–12% in both the public and private sectors. At the same time, the report notes that about 60% of poor wage workers are employed without written contracts or basic social protections, while more than 40% work in irregular, temporary or seasonal jobs.
The report also highlights the position of women in the labor market. Women account for 92% of economically inactive adults in poor and vulnerable households, with about 85% citing childcare and household responsibilities as the main reason for not working. Women with children under two are 36% less likely to be employed than women without children. Among employed women, average wages are 35–40% lower than those of men, with the report noting that this gap is about 20 percentage points higher than the global average.
The report also identifies significant regional disparities in economic progress. Despite the narrowing of regional poverty gaps, the expansion of the middle class remains highly uneven and is concentrated primarily in Tashkent and Tashkent Region, which account for more than half of all highly skilled private-sector jobs in the country.
The World Bank’s policy priorities include expanding access for poor and vulnerable groups to quality education and in-demand labor market skills, including STEM and digital competencies; improving transport and digital connectivity between lagging regions and growth centers; expanding affordable, including rental, housing in Tashkent and other major cities to support domestic labor mobility; reducing barriers to women’s employment by expanding access to preschool education and childcare for young children; and improving the targeting of social protection, including by strengthening benefits for low-income families and gradually replacing untargeted energy and utility subsidies with targeted social assistance.
According to the report’s macro-microsimulation estimates, implementing a package of reforms in education and professional skills could reduce poverty by an additional 0.8 percentage points by 2040, lower vulnerability by 2.1 percentage points and increase the middle-class share by 2.9 percentage points compared with a scenario in which current policies remain unchanged.
Measures to expand access to childcare, improve women’s skills and increase the retirement age for women could, according to the World Bank’s estimates, reduce poverty by 0.7 percentage points, lower vulnerability by 1.8 percentage points and increase the middle-class share by 2.4 percentage points over the same period.
