Uzbekistan Cuts Poverty to 5.8% as Higher Wages Lift Millions, World Bank Finds

Millions move above the poverty line, but secure work remains scarce

Uzbekistan's national poverty rate fell from 17% in 2021 to 5.8% in 2025, lifting about 3.7 million people above the national poverty line, according to the World Bank. Higher wages and greater access to paid employment drove the improvement, even as many workers continued to depend on informal or seasonal jobs.

The bank's Poverty and Equity Assessment, dated September 23, 2026, describes a rapid expansion of the middle class alongside persistent gaps between the capital and other regions. About 22% of the population remained economically vulnerable in 2025, meaning illness, job loss or another financial shock could push them back into poverty.

The Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction subsequently reported that poverty had fallen further, to 3.6%, during the first nine months of 2026. At an October 28 press conference in Tashkent, First Deputy Minister Marat Jurayev described the rate as having reached that level by October, with the number of people classified as poor falling from 2.2 million at the start of the year to 1.4 million.

The World Bank's findings put the next challenge in concrete terms: two thirds of new jobs are in construction and trade, about 85% of new jobs are informal, and real labor productivity has turned negative. Uzbekistan has brought many more people into earning work; making those earnings dependable is now central to protecting household gains.

What the poverty figures measure

Uzbekistan's national poverty rate dropped by 11.2 percentage points between 2021 and 2025. That is a reduction of about two thirds from the starting rate of 17%. A national poverty line sets the minimum resources used within a country to identify people living in poverty and guide domestic support.

The World Bank also measures Uzbekistan against an international benchmark of $8.30 per person per day, adjusted for purchasing power. This adjustment accounts for differences in prices between countries, allowing a comparison of what people's resources can buy rather than simply converting their money at market exchange rates.

Under that higher threshold, used as a benchmark for countries with upper middle incomes, Uzbekistan's poverty rate fell from 38.1% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2025. The decline was 25.7 percentage points. The higher benchmark counts a broader group of households as poor because it sets a higher minimum living standard.

Uzbekistan accounted for nearly 40% of the approximately 21 million people who moved above that international threshold across Europe and Central Asia. The assessment places its experience among the 15 largest episodes of poverty reduction recorded worldwide since 2000. Jurayev separately described Uzbekistan as among the world's top five countries for poverty reduction and credited it with 60% of Central Asia's decline. The ministry did not provide the calculation method or identify the particular World Bank document behind his ranking and latest poverty figures.

Higher wages did most of the work

Wage increases accounted for 6.1 percentage points of the 8.4 percentage point reduction in poverty between 2022 and 2025, according to the assessment. That amounts to roughly 73% of the decline during that period. The expansion of salaried employment also contributed.

Najy Benhassine, the World Bank's Division Director for Central Asia, identified employment and pay as the main forces behind the improvement:

More jobs and higher wages were the main drivers of Uzbekistan's progress in reducing poverty.

Real wages for workers on low pay increased by at least 11% to 12% annually. Real wages account for inflation, so the increase means workers could buy more with their earnings even after rising prices were taken into account.

Men in the poorest fifth of the population experienced a large change in access to work. Their employment rate rose from 38% in 2022 to 65% in 2025, while the share in salaried employment increased from 18% to 46%. More men were working, and a larger share had wage income rather than relying on other forms of earning.

Why job quality matters as much as job numbers

Informal employment remains widespread among people who are still poor. Around 60% of poor men working for wages are employed informally, while more than 40% work in irregular, temporary or seasonal positions. Such work can leave household income changing sharply from one month or season to the next.

The assessment's broader findings show why this matters beyond the poorest workers. Construction and trade account for two thirds of new jobs, and about 85% of new jobs are informal. Informal work generally operates outside some formal registration, employment protection or social insurance arrangements.

Real labor productivity has also turned negative. Labor productivity measures output relative to the labor used to produce it, with the real measure allowing for price changes. Falling productivity makes it harder for businesses to sustain rising pay through greater output.

The World Bank recommends stronger competition, better access to finance and more productive employment led by private businesses. Its focus is on jobs that are formally registered, can support lasting wage growth and are accessible outside Tashkent. For families, the practical difference is between receiving income today and being able to count on it when planning next month's expenses.

A larger middle class, with a strong divide by location

Uzbekistan's middle class expanded from 37% of the population in 2021 to more than 72% in 2025. The share in the upper middle class rose from 8% to 31%. The bank separates the lower and upper parts of the middle class according to economic security and the risk of returning to poverty.

Tashkent has captured a large share of the more secure gains. Half of all jobs requiring high qualifications are located in Tashkent city and the surrounding region. The number of capital residents in the upper middle class grew more than fourfold after 2021.

Economic vulnerability varies sharply by location. In 2025, 2% of residents in Tashkent were classified as vulnerable to falling back into poverty, compared with 32% in Andijan in eastern Uzbekistan. That is a gap of 30 percentage points.

The World Bank recommends better transport and digital connections between remote areas and economic centers, alongside more affordable rental housing in cities where jobs are growing. These measures address different costs of reaching work: travelling to it, accessing opportunities online or moving closer to an employer.

Care responsibilities keep many women out of work

Women make up 92% of economically inactive adults in poor and vulnerable households. Economically inactive adults are people outside the labor force, rather than people counted as unemployed while seeking work. Among those women, 85% cite domestic and care responsibilities as the main reason they are not working.

Mothers of children younger than two are 36% less likely to work, according to the assessment. The bank also identifies a gender wage gap of 35% to 40%, reflecting differences in employment sectors, working hours, skills and professional experience.

Affordable childcare and schooling that covers the full day are therefore part of the bank's employment recommendations. For a parent responsible for a young child, an available job also requires a workable care arrangement during working hours.

The bank recommends targeted support for families with young children and skills training that helps women enter sectors with higher earnings. Pairing training with help finding a job would connect new qualifications to actual vacancies, rather than leaving women to make that connection alone.

Education and benefits show where protection is thin

About 80% of children aged 15 fail to reach minimum proficiency in core subjects, the assessment finds. Weak basic learning limits the skills young people can take into further education and employment, even when more jobs become available.

Higher education enrollment also varies by location, from 63% in Tashkent to 23% in some regions. The 40 percentage point gap sits alongside the concentration of highly skilled jobs in the capital and surrounding area.

The World Bank recommends improving general education, expanding vocational and university pathways in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and information and communication technology, and matching training more closely to local demand for workers.

Social protection has narrowed as poverty has fallen. Coverage under the Low Income Family Allowance, the main cash transfer program, declined from 26% of households in 2022 to 8% in 2025. That is a drop of 18 percentage points, or roughly 69% relative to its earlier reach.

The bank recommends restoring support with sharper targeting of poor and vulnerable households, creating systems that can respond quickly to economic shocks, and shifting spending from broad energy subsidies to direct assistance. Broad subsidies lower energy costs for a wide range of users; targeted assistance directs support toward households identified as needing help.

What the ministry says changed during 2026

The ministry reported that 824,000 people secured permanent jobs between January and September 2026 and that the employment of 980,000 informal workers was formalized. Nearly 4.14 million people received assistance intended to increase their incomes during the same period.

The number of poor households fell from 533,000 to 349,000 over the first nine months, according to ministry figures. Earlier figures put the poverty rate at 3.9% after the first eight months, before the ministry announced the subsequent decline to 3.6%.

The sequence of the main figures and announcements is:

• 2021: The national poverty rate stood at 17%, while 37% of the population was classified as middle class.
• 2025: The national poverty rate reached 5.8%, and the middle class exceeded 72% of the population.
• January to September 2026: The ministry reported 824,000 permanent job placements and the formalization of employment for 980,000 workers.
• September 23, 2026: The World Bank dated its Poverty and Equity Assessment.
• October 28, 2026: Jurayev announced in Tashkent that poverty had fallen to 3.6% by October.

Employment and Poverty Reduction Minister Botir Zohidov said the assessment reflected results from reforms in employment and social protection. He described the ministry's next priorities:

The Ministry will continue working to expand access to decent jobs, increase household incomes and strengthen the social protection system.

Business support will be judged by lasting income

Problems among small businesses show why the government is changing how it measures support. At a meeting chaired by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on September 3, the presidential administration said 15,000 of the 86,000 small businesses established in the regions over the preceding year had stopped operating. That is about 17%, or roughly one in six.

Another 62,000 borrowers were struggling to repay loans after their businesses failed to develop as planned. The government announced plans to give district authorities greater financing powers and assess business support programs by permanent jobs and stable household incomes generated, rather than the amount of credit distributed.

Bukhara presents another concrete test. Regional assessments identified 24,000 people who had returned from abroad without jobs providing steady income, nearly 40,000 unemployed residents and another 270,000 people earning below average incomes. District plans are intended to raise the incomes of those 270,000 residents, alongside vocational training and placement in work with higher pay.

Mirziyoyev told officials in Bukhara that their performance would be judged by actual income and quality of life. He rejected declarations that poverty had simply disappeared:

From now on, reports stating that 'there are no poor families left' will not be accepted.

The change in assessment brings government programs closer to the central issue identified by the World Bank. A loan or job placement can start an improvement; a business that keeps operating and a wage that arrives regularly help a household maintain it. For the roughly 22% still economically vulnerable in 2025, that stability is the next step toward greater security.

Key Points

• Uzbekistan's national poverty rate fell from 17% in 2021 to 5.8% in 2025, with about 3.7 million people moving above the poverty line.
• Higher wages accounted for roughly 73% of the poverty reduction recorded between 2022 and 2025.
• The ministry reported a further decline to 3.6% by October 2026.
• More than 72% of residents were classified as middle class in 2025, but about 22% remained economically vulnerable.
• Informal work, care responsibilities, uneven education and regional gaps limit access to secure earnings.
• Government business support is to be judged by permanent jobs and stable household incomes rather than credit volumes.