UNDP report 'Layers of Deprivation' finds 37 million people in Myanmar hit by overlapping crises

8 October 2026

The United Nations Development Programme released a study titled Layers of Deprivation: Multidimensional Poverty in Myanmar. It describes what it calls a simultaneous collapse of shelter, healthcare, schooling and livelihoods. More than two in three people in the country are either in multidimensional poverty or at risk of it, which works out to over 37 million people, or 68 per cent of the population, facing overlapping crises. Health and living-standard deficits together account for more than 80 per cent of measured multidimensional poverty. Rakhine State is the worst affected, with more than two-thirds of its people multidimensionally poor and nearly a third severely poor. About one in five households face climate-related risks, and roughly 600,000 people were affected by flooding by the end of August. Nearly half the households that live on casual labour are multidimensionally poor, and the report estimates that at least one million young people may have left Myanmar since 2021.