The United Nations development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) developed a new version of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The global MPI covers 105 countries in total, which are home to 77 per cent of the world’s population, or 5.7 billion people. Of this proportion, 23 per cent of people (1.3 billion) are identified as multidimensionally poor.
For the 2018 global MPI, five of the ten indicators have been revised jointly by OPHI and UNDP to align the MPI with the 2030 Agenda. This is in response to the Agenda’s call for a better measure of progress toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 – “to end poverty in all its forms” – and to help achieve the principle of leaving no one behind.
Our analysis of 2018 global multidimensional poverty offer both a global headline and fine-grained analysis for children, rural areas, 1127 subnational regions across 88 countries, 640 districts in India, and other critical subgroups. The purpose is only in part to inform and at times alarm: more fundamentally, the purpose is to empower and incite action that ends acute poverty across many dimensions.
On this page, you can read the Global MPI 2018 Report, key findings that include global, regional and subgroups highlights, the latest MPI Methodological Note (No. 46) and download the data tables of this update of the global MPI. You can also access the detailed algorithms (Stata do-files) underlying the global MPI 2018 for each country. OPHI Working Paper 121, by Sabina Alkire and Selim Jahan, gives an overview of the structure of the global MPI 2018.
Do visit our new Interactive Databank to explore the data intuitively.
If you are interested and download in individual countries, we have Country Briefings for each of the 105 countries that make up the global MPI 2018.
This animation provides an overview of the global MPI 2018.
Global MPI 2018 Report
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index Report: The Most Detailed Picture to Date of the World’s Poorest People presents the global MPI 2018, a newly revised index based on a short but powerful list of 10 deprivations. During the launch of the Global MPI 2018, Achim Steiner further highlights that if development is about being more precise about directing the limited resources governments have and the indicators of the global MPI can aid that process. The revised global MPI is the joint work of OPHI and UNDP. The overarching aim of the revised MPI is to better align the global MPI with the SDGs
Chapter 1 provides a global overview of findings from the global MPI 2018. Chapter 2 focuses on India, presenting a case study on MPI from 2005/06 to 2015/16, with analyses of trends by age, state, caste, and religion, and a direct mapping of poverty at the district level in 2015/16. Turning first to the youngest on our planet, Chapter 3 assesses child poverty across all countries. Multidimensional poverty varies both within and across major geographic regions like Latin America or East Asia and the Pacific, and Chapter 4 presents some notable highlights. Going within countries, Chapter 5 scrutinises poverty levels and composition across rural and urban areas. Finally, Chapter 6 zooms in to investigate circumstances within and across countries according to subnational regions
India lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, recording the fastest reductions in the multidimensional poverty index values during the period with strong improvements in areas such as “assets, cooking fuel, sanitation and nutrition,” a report by the United Nations said.
The 2019 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) from the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) was released on Thursday.
The report said that in the 101 countries studied — 31 low income, 68 middle income and 2 high income – 1.3 billion people are “multidimensionally poor”, which means that poverty is defined not simply by income, but by a number of indicators, including poor health, poor quality of work and the threat of violence.
The report identifies 10 countries, with a combined population of around 2 billion people, to illustrate the level of poverty reduction, and all of them have shown statistically significant progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 1, namely ending poverty “in all its forms, everywhere”.
The 10 countries are Bangladesh, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru and Vietnam.
The report said that within these 10 countries, data shows that 270 million people moved out of multidimensional poverty from one survey to the next.
“This progress was largely driven by South Asia. In India, there were 271 million fewer people in poverty in 2016 than in 2006, while in Bangladesh the number dropped by 19 million between 2004 and 2014,” it said.
The report noted that of the 10 selected countries for which changes over time were analysed, India and Cambodia reduced their MPI values the fastest — and they did not leave the poorest groups behind.
India’s MPI value reduced from 0.283 in 2005-06 to 0.123 in 2015-16.
Noting the examples of pro-poor reduction, where the poorest regions improved the fastest, the report said that Jharkhand in India reduced the incidence of multidimensional poverty from 74.9% in 2005-06 to 46.5% in 2015-16. Mondol Kiri and Rattanak Kiri in Cambodia reduced it from 71.0% to 55.9% between 2010 and 2014.
Ethiopia, India and Peru significantly reduced deprivations in all 10 indicators, namely nutrition, sanitation, child mortality, drinking water, years of schooling, electricity, school attendance, housing, cooking fuel and assets.
In 2005-2006, the population in India living in multidimensional poverty stood at about 640 million people (55.1%) and this reduced to 369 million people (27.9%) living in poverty in 2015-16. India saw significant reductions in number of people who are multidimensionally poor and deprived in each of the 10 indicators over this time period.
India reduced deprivation in nutrition from 44.3% in 2005-06 to 21.2% in 2015-16, child mortality dropped from 4.5% to 2.2%, people deprived of cooking fuel reduced from 52.9% to 26.2%, deprivation in sanitation from 50.4% to 24.6%, those deprived of drinking water reduced from 16.6% to 6.2 %.
Further more people gained access to electricity as deprivation was reduced from 29.1% to 8.6%, housing from 44.9% to 23.6% and assets deprivation from 37.6% to 9.5%.
The trends in these 10 countries also shine a light on where poverty reduction has been uneven, despite the good progress overall, it said.
“In all 10 countries rural areas are poorer than urban areas. In Cambodia, Haiti, India and Peru poverty reduction in rural areas outpaced that in urban areas — demonstrating pro-poor development — and in Bangladesh and Democratic Republic of the Congo poverty fell at the same speed in rural and urban areas, it added.
The report also showed that children suffer poverty more intensely than adults and are more likely to be deprived in all 10 of the MPI indicators, lacking essentials such as clean water, sanitation, adequate nutrition or primary education.
Child poverty fell markedly faster than adult poverty in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Haiti, India and Peru. But children fell further behind in Ethiopia, and their progress—together with that of adults—stalled in Democratic Republic of the Congo and Pakistan.
Globally, of the 1.3 billion people who are multidimensionally poor, more than two-thirds of them—886 million— now live in middle-income countries. A further 440 million live in low-income countries.
Even more staggering, worldwide, one in three children is multidimensionally poor, compared to one in six adults. That means that nearly half of the people living in multidimensional poverty — 663 million — are children, with the youngest children bearing the greatest burden. The vast majority of these children, around 85 %, live in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, split roughly equally between the two regions.
The report underscored that the traditional concept of poverty is outdated, demonstrating more clearly than ever that labelling countries – or even households – as rich and poor is an oversimplification.
“To fight poverty, one needs to know where poor people live. They are not evenly spread across a country, not even within a household,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said.
The report also highlighted a positive trend that those furthest behind are moving up the fastest.
India’s progress in health outcomes dismal: UN report
The under-five mortality rate in the country still stands at 43 per 1,000 live births
While there has been an improvement in poverty rates in India in the last 10 years, progress in health outcomes in the country seems to be lagging, according to the 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
India (37.9 per cent) has the second-highest stunting rate followed by Pakistan (45 per cent), among the middle-income countries in Asia. Myanmar (29.4 per cent), Nepal (36 per cent) and Bangladesh (36.2 per cent) have lower rates.
“The trajectories to achieve targets in reducing stunting suggest that a rate of reduction of 4.9 per cent is required to achieve the World Health Summit targets (40 per cent reduction in stunting prevalence till 2025) or the targets set by UN-mandated Sustainable Development Goal by 2030,” according to a latest report on malnutrition. It highlighted major gaps in nutrition programmes of India.
The MPI report also paints a worrying picture of prevalance of child mortality in India. The under-five mortality rate in the country still stands at 43 per 1,000 live births.
While Myanmar, Pakistan have shown no improvement, Nepal and Bangladesh were successful in bringing down their respective rates to 34 per 1,000 live births each.
Most of these deaths in India happened from preventable causes, finds a study based upon data from eight states in the country.
It also showed that the survival of children from the same illness varies between different states, indicating that it is linked to equitable access and consistent availability of services in those states.
Further, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) also show India in a poor light, according to the UN report. India scores the worst among all the four Asian nations in the middle-income group.
As many as 18.8 persons per 1,000 people live in areas vulnerable to malaria in India. Bangladesh has the least (0.6 per 1,000 people) number of people living in such areas, while Pakistan has the highest (10.6 per 1,000 people).
Myanmar has 7.2 persons per 1,000 people and Nepal accounts for 0.9 persons per 1,000 people in areas vulnerable to malaria.
In India, TB affects 211 people per 10,000 people exposed to the disease. This also includes new and relapse cases of TB, stated the report.
Pakistan has 268 people per 10,000 people exposed to the disease, Myanmar 361 and Nepal 154.
Despite this, the allocation of health expenditure in the country is far behind UN target, the report found.
India spends a total of 3.9 per cent of GDP (including public and private expenditure) on health, the second-lowest compared to other Asian countries in the middle-income group. While Myanmar spends 4.9 per cent of GDP, Nepal spends 6.9 and Pakistan spends 2.7 per cent.
“There is still a long way to go before the target of public health expenditure is achieved and the central allocation for health for 2019-20 was far short of target,” said the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its latest report. It reminded the government for the need to augment budgetary allocation on public health.
“In states, health spending as a percentage of total states expenditure, ranged from 3.29 to 5.32 per cent which shows that this need considerable augmentation,” CAG said in its report.
भारत में स्वास्थ्य, स्कूली शिक्षा समेत विभिन्न क्षेत्रों में हुई प्रगति से बड़ी संख्या में लोग गरीबी के दलदल से बाहर निकल आए हैं। संयुक्त राष्ट्र की एक रिपोर्ट के अनुसार वर्ष 2006 से 2016 के बीच रेकॉर्ड 27.10 करोड़ लोग गरीबी से बाहर निकले हैं। खाना पकाने के ईंधन, साफ-सफाई और पोषण जैसे क्षेत्रों में मजबूत सुधार के साथ बहुआयामी गरीबी सूचकांक वैल्यू में सबसे बड़ी गिरावट आई है।
संयुक्त राष्ट्र विकास कार्यक्रम (यूएनडीपी) और ऑक्सफर्ड पावर्टी ऐंड ह्यूमन डिवेलपमेंट इनीशएटिव (ओपीएचआई) द्वारा तैयार वैश्विक बहुआयामी गरीबी सूचकांक (एमपीआई) 2019 गुरुवार को जारी किया गया। रिपोर्ट में 101 देशों में 1.3 अरब लोगों का अध्ययन किया गया। इसमें 31 न्यूनतम आय, 68 मध्यम आय और 2 उच्च आय वाले देश थे। विभिन्न पहलुओं के आधार पर ये लोग गरीबी में फंसे थे यानी गरीबी का आकलन सिर्फ आय के आधार पर नहीं बल्कि स्वास्थ्य की खराब स्थिति, कामकाज की खराब गुणवत्ता और हिंसा का खतरा जैसे कई संकेतकों के आधार पर किया गया।
संयुक्त राष्ट्र की रिपोर्ट में गरीबी में कमी को देखने के लिए संयुक्त रूप से करीब दो अरब आबादी के साथ 10 देशों को चिन्हित किया गया। आंकड़ों के आधार पर इन सभी ने सतत विकास लक्ष्य 1 प्राप्त करने के लिए उल्लेखनीय प्रगति की। सतत विकास लक्ष्य 1 से आशय गरीबी को सभी रूपों में हर जगह समाप्त करना है। ये 10 देश बांग्लादेश, कम्बोडिया, डेमोक्रैटिक रिपब्लिक ऑफ कांगो, इथियोपिया, हैती, भारत, नाइजीरिया, पाकिस्तान, पेरू और वियतनाम हैं। इन देशों में गरीबी में उल्लेखनीय कमी आई है।
रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक, ‘सबसे अधिक प्रगति दक्षिण एशिया में देखी गई। भारत में 2006 से 2016 के बीच 27.10 करोड़ लोग, जबकि बांग्लादेश में 2004 से 2014 के बीच 1.90 करोड़ लोग गरीबी से बाहर निकले।’ इसमें कहा गया है कि 10 चुने गए देशों में भारत और कम्बोडिया में एमपीआई मूल्य में सबसे तेजी से कमी आई और उन्होंने सर्वाधिक गरीब लागों को बाहर निकालने में कोई कसर नहीं छोड़ी।
भारत का MPI वैल्यू 2005-06 में 0.283 था, जो 2015-16 में 0.123 पर आ गया। रिपोर्ट में कहा गया है कि भारत में गरीबी में कमी के मामले में सर्वाधिक सुधार झारखंड में देखा गया। वहां विभिन्न स्तरों पर गरीबी 2005-06 में 74.9 प्रतिशत से कम होकर 2015-16 में 46.5 प्रतिशत पर आ गई। इसमें कहा गया है कि 10 संकेतकों पोषण, स्वच्छता, बच्चों की स्कूली शिक्षा, बिजली, स्कूल में उपस्थिति, आवास, खाना पकाने का ईंधन और संपत्ति के मामले में भारत के अलावा इथोपिया और पेरू में उल्लेखनीय सुधार दर्ज किए गए।
संयुक्त राष्ट्र की रिपोर्ट के अनुसार वर्ष 2005-06 में भारत के करीब 64 करोड़ लोग (55.1 प्रतिशत) गरीबी में जी रहे थे, जो संख्या घटकर 2015-16 में 36.9 करोड (27.9 प्रतिशत) पर आ गई। इस प्रकार, भारत ने बहुआयामी यानी विभिन्न स्तरों और उक्त 10 मानकों में पिछड़े लोगों को गरीबी से बाहर निकालने में उल्लेखनीय प्रगति की है।