Who's covered? Global trends in social protection

Global social protection coverage saw modest increases between 2015 and 2023, indicating a slight expansion in support systems designed to help people cope with poverty, illness, or old age.

Older persons have the highest coverage, increasing from 74% in 2015 to 80% in 2023.

This is the only group with a majority of its population covered. Coverage for Persons with severe disabilities also rose, from 33% to 39%.

Similarly, Vulnerable persons covered by social assistance saw an increase from 27% to 37%.

Groups such as Workers in case of work injury (from 33% to 37%) and Mothers with newborns (from 30% to 36%) also noted gains.

However, coverage remains low for Children, moving from 22% to 28%, and is lowest for Unemployed persons, which only increased from 15% to 17%.

Despite improvements, a large portion of the world's most vulnerable groups still lack coverage by at least one social protection system.