Multidimensional Poverty Index 2020

• 18 Jul 2020

• The 2020 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) data and publication "Charting pathways out of multidimensional poverty: Achieving the SDGs" released on 16 July 2020 by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• Multidimensional poverty encompasses the various deprivations experienced by poor people in their daily lives – such as poor health, lack of education, inadequate living standards, poor quality of work, the threat of violence, and living in areas that are environmentally hazardous, among others. 

Key Findings

• 65 countries reduced their Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) value significantly in absolute terms. Those countries are home to 96 per cent of the population of the 75 countries studied for poverty trends.
• Sierra Leone made the fastest progress in reducing their global MPI value.
• India saw the most people moving out of multidimensional poverty – some 273 million people between 2005/6 and 2015/16.
• Four countries — India, Armenia, Nicaragua and North Macedonia — have reduced their MPI by half or more in 5.5 to 10.5 years.
• Three South Asian nations — India, Bangladesh and Nepal — were among the 16 fastest countries to reduce their MPI value.
• Children show higher rates of multidimensional poverty: half of multidimensionally poor people (644 million) are children under the age of 18. One in three children is poor compared with one in six adults.
• There is a negative, moderate but statistically significant correlation between the incidence of multidimensional poverty and the coverage of three doses of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) vaccine.