UNDP index puts 1.2 billion people in acute multidimensional poverty, the first rise since the measure began
12 October 2026
The 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, a statistical update published on 12 October 2026 by the United Nations Development Programme with the University of Oxford, covers 108 countries.
Of the 6.3 billion people living in those countries, 1.2 billion, or 18.9 per cent, live in acute multidimensional poverty.
The number of people in multidimensional poverty has risen for the first time since the index was launched in 2010.
More than half of all multidimensionally poor people are children, 617 million in all, and more than 8 in 10 live in rural areas.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of any world region, with 616 million people, 51.4 per cent of its population, multidimensionally poor.
This year's update adds new surveys from 13 countries and gives subnational estimates for 1,360 regions across 100 countries.
Among the 89 countries with trend data, 33 have halved their MPI value in fewer than 15 years, six of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo called the rise in poverty "a wake-up call for the world", adding that progress is possible.
In plain words
MPI Multidimensional Poverty Index — A measure of poverty that counts overlapping deprivations in health, education and standard of living rather than income alone.
Acute multidimensional poverty — A person counts as poor on this index if deprived in at least one-third of its weighted indicators.
UNDP United Nations Development Programme — The UN's development agency, which publishes the Human Development Report and the global MPI.
Subnational estimate — A poverty figure worked out for a region or province inside a country rather than for the country as a whole.