The 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has been jointly released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). 

About the 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

• The Global MPI measures acute multidimensional poverty across 100+ developing countries, reflecting deprivations across multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — including health, education, housing, sanitation, and energy access.
• Developed by: UNDP and OPHI, University of Oxford.
• Launch: Introduced in 2010
• Purpose: To measure poverty through multiple indicators — including health, education, and living standards — beyond income-based measures. (refer image)
• The MPI identifies people as “multidimensionally poor” if they are deprived in at least one-third of the weighted indicators.
• Index: The MPI ranges from 0 to 1, and higher values imply higher poverty.
• New Feature (2025 Edition): For the first time, the report maps poor populations’ exposure to four major climate hazards – High heat, Drought, Floods and Air pollution

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Global Findings

• Global MPI Status: Out of 6.3 billion people, 1.1 billion (18.3%) live in acute multidimensional poverty.
  • Of this, 887 million poor people live in areas affected by at least one climate hazard.
• Demographic Profile:
  • Children: 27.8% are poor—over 586 million, forming more than half of all multidimensionally poor people, double the adult poverty rate (13.5%).
• Rural–Urban Divide: 83.5% of poor people live in rural areas, despite comprising only 54.9% of the population.
• Human Development Link: 90.5% of poor people live in low or medium Human Development Index (HDI) countries.
• Regional Concentration:
  • Sub-Saharan Africa: 565 million poor (51%).
  • South Asia: 390 million poor (35%).
  • Together, these two regions account for 83.2% of global poverty.
• India’s progress: 
  • Multidimensional poverty fell from 55.1% in 2005–06 to 16.4% in 2019–21, with 414 million people moving out of poverty.
  • Vulnerable to Poverty: An additional 18.7% (approx. 268.7 million people) are vulnerable to multidimensional poverty, meaning they experience several deprivations.
• Common Deprivations: The most widespread poverty indicators remain:
  • Lack of clean cooking fuel: 970 million people.
  • Inadequate housing: 878 million.
  • Poor sanitation: 830 million.
  • Undernutrition: 635 million live in households with at least one undernourished member.
  • Education: 581 million live in households where no one has completed six years of schooling.

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