Global MPI 2020

The global MPI 2020 compares acute multidimensional poverty for 107 countries in
developing regions. These countries are home to 5.9 billion people, three quarters of the
world’s population. Of these people, 1.3 billion people (22%) are identified by the
global MPI as multidimensionally poor.

Goal 1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to end poverty in all its forms
and dimensions. The global MPI 2020 offers a tool to make progress towards this goal.

Produced in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme’s Human

Development Report Office (UNDP HDRO), the global MPI 2020 provides a detailed
image of who is poor and how they are poor. It offers both a global headline and a fine-
grained analysis covering 1,279 subnational regions, and important groups such as
children, and people living in urban or rural areas, together with the indicator
deprivations of each group.

This year – ten years after the launch of the global MPI – we present the first
comprehensive study of harmonised trends in MPI and related statistics for 80 countries
for which data is available. Trend data are likewise disaggregated by groups.
Report and key findings

The joint OPHI and UNDP global MPI report, Global Multidimensional Poverty Index
2020 – Charting Pathways out of Multidimensional Poverty: Achieving the SDGs,
presents the key findings of the global MPI 2020 and the first comprehensive study of
harmonized MPI trends, also known as Changes over Time, indicating that 65 out of 75
countries reduced MPI significantly.

It explores whether before the pandemic countries were on or off track to halve
multidimensional poverty by 2030 – a challenge set by SDG 1 – and finds 47 countries
were on track. In the context of the current crisis, the report simulates possible impacts
of COVID-19 on multidimensional poverty, finding that, if unaddressed, it could set
progress back by up to a decade.

Finally, linkages between the global MPI and other SDG indicators related to climate,
work, immunization, higher education, and urban/rural areas bring together multiple
perspectives on pressing issues in development.

Our analysis covers the significant progress in poverty reduction made by some
countries in the past twenty years, but it is clear that decisive action is needed more than
ever to sustain progress and ensure no one is left behind.

Key findings include:

• Across 107 developing countries and 5.9 billion people, 1.3 billion people—22
percent—live in multidimensional poverty.
• 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.
• About 84 percent of multidimensionally poor people live in Sub-Saharan Africa (558
million) and South Asia (530 million). Two-thirds of multidimensionally poor people
live in middle-income countries.
• 71 percent of the 5.9 billion people covered experience at least one deprivation;
however, the average number of deprivations they experience is five.
• 107 million multidimensionally poor people are age 60 or older—a particularly
importantly figure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 65 countries reduced their Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) value significantly in
absolute terms. Those countries are home to 96 percent of the population of the 75
countries studied for poverty trends.
• The countries with the fastest reduction in MPI value in absolute terms were Sierra
Leone, Mauritania and Liberia, followed by Timor-Leste, Guinea and Rwanda. The
fastest, Sierra Leone (2013–2017), did so during the Ebola epidemic. North Macedonia
had the fastest relative poverty reduction, followed by China, Armenia, Kazakhstan,
Indonesia, Turkmenistan and Mongolia. Each of these countries cut its original MPI
value by at least 12 percent a year.
• Four countries halved their MPI value. India (2005/2006–2015/2016) did so nationally
and among children and had the biggest reduction in the number of
multidimensionally poor people (over 270 million).
• In nearly a third of the countries studied, either there was no reduction in
multidimensional poverty for children, or the MPI value fell more slowly for children
than for adults.
• Pre-COVID-19, 47 countries were on track to halve poverty between 2015 and 2030, if
reported trends continued. But 18 countries, including some of the poorest, were off
track.
• Simulations based on anticipated impacts of the pandemic on just two indicators of
the global MPI – nutrition and school attendance – suggest that, if unaddressed, the
crisis might erase up to a decade’s worth of gains.
• 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.
 • In Sub-Saharan Africa 71.9 percent of people in rural areas (466 million people) are
multidimensionally poor compared with 25.2 percent (92 million people) in urban
areas.
• Environmental deprivations are most acute in Sub-Saharan Africa: at least 53.9 percent
of the population (547 million people) is multidimensionally poor and faces at least
one environmental deprivation. Environmental deprivations are also high in South
Asia: at least 26.8 percent of the population (486 million people) is multidimensionally
poor and lacks access to one of the three environment indicators.

Further resources

Global MPI 2020

• Global MPI Databank – for exploring the data visually and intuitively.
• Country Briefings – detailed summaries of global MPI for each country.
• Data Tables – all of the detailed numbers for all countries in seven tables.
• MPI Methodological Note 49 – technical details behind the measure.
• Stata do-files – for researchers who wish to understand or use the code.

Changes over Time 2020

• Changes over Time Country Briefings – for 80 countries with harmonised poverty
trends.
• Data Table 6 – all national and disaggregated data on poverty trends in one file.
• MPI Methodological Note 50 – details of the harmonisation process and country-
specific decisions.
• Research in Progress 57a – an analysis of the results for 80 countries, including a
comparison of trends in multidimensional and monetary poverty
• Research in Progress 54b – a new paper analysing the 2005/6 to 2015/16 trends of
poverty reduction in India, with new analysis of dominance and robustness.

Global MPI 2020

The global MPI 2020 compares acute multidimensional poverty for 107 countries in
developing regions. These countries are home to 5.9 billion people, three quarters of the
world’s population. Of these people, 1.3 billion people (22%) are identified by the
global MPI as multidimensionally poor.

Goal 1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to end poverty in all its forms
and dimensions. The global MPI 2020 offers a tool to make progress towards this goal.

Produced in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme’s Human

Development Report Office (UNDP HDRO), the global MPI 2020 provides a detailed
image of who is poor and how they are poor. It offers both a global headline and a fine-
grained analysis covering 1,279 subnational regions, and important groups such as
children, and people living in urban or rural areas, together with the indicator
deprivations of each group.

This year – ten years after the launch of the global MPI – we present the first
comprehensive study of harmonised trends in MPI and related statistics for 80 countries
for which data is available. Trend data are likewise disaggregated by groups.
Report and key findings

The joint OPHI and UNDP global MPI report, Global Multidimensional Poverty Index
2020 – Charting Pathways out of Multidimensional Poverty: Achieving the SDGs,
presents the key findings of the global MPI 2020 and the first comprehensive study of
harmonized MPI trends, also known as Changes over Time, indicating that 65 out of 75
countries reduced MPI significantly.

It explores whether before the pandemic countries were on or off track to halve
multidimensional poverty by 2030 – a challenge set by SDG 1 – and finds 47 countries
were on track. In the context of the current crisis, the report simulates possible impacts
of COVID-19 on multidimensional poverty, finding that, if unaddressed, it could set
progress back by up to a decade.

Finally, linkages between the global MPI and other SDG indicators related to climate,
work, immunization, higher education, and urban/rural areas bring together multiple
perspectives on pressing issues in development.

Our analysis covers the significant progress in poverty reduction made by some
countries in the past twenty years, but it is clear that decisive action is needed more than
ever to sustain progress and ensure no one is left behind.

Key findings include:

• Across 107 developing countries and 5.9 billion people, 1.3 billion people—22
percent—live in multidimensional poverty.
• 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.
• About 84 percent of multidimensionally poor people live in Sub-Saharan Africa (558
million) and South Asia (530 million). Two-thirds of multidimensionally poor people
live in middle-income countries.
• 71 percent of the 5.9 billion people covered experience at least one deprivation;
however, the average number of deprivations they experience is five.
• 107 million multidimensionally poor people are age 60 or older—a particularly
importantly figure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 65 countries reduced their Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) value significantly in
absolute terms. Those countries are home to 96 percent of the population of the 75
countries studied for poverty trends.
• The countries with the fastest reduction in MPI value in absolute terms were Sierra
Leone, Mauritania and Liberia, followed by Timor-Leste, Guinea and Rwanda. The
fastest, Sierra Leone (2013–2017), did so during the Ebola epidemic. North Macedonia
had the fastest relative poverty reduction, followed by China, Armenia, Kazakhstan,
Indonesia, Turkmenistan and Mongolia. Each of these countries cut its original MPI
value by at least 12 percent a year.
• Four countries halved their MPI value. India (2005/2006–2015/2016) did so nationally
and among children and had the biggest reduction in the number of
multidimensionally poor people (over 270 million).
• In nearly a third of the countries studied, either there was no reduction in
multidimensional poverty for children, or the MPI value fell more slowly for children
than for adults.
• Pre-COVID-19, 47 countries were on track to halve poverty between 2015 and 2030, if
reported trends continued. But 18 countries, including some of the poorest, were off
track.
• Simulations based on anticipated impacts of the pandemic on just two indicators of
the global MPI – nutrition and school attendance – suggest that, if unaddressed, the
crisis might erase up to a decade’s worth of gains.
• 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.
 • In Sub-Saharan Africa 71.9 percent of people in rural areas (466 million people) are
multidimensionally poor compared with 25.2 percent (92 million people) in urban
areas.
• Environmental deprivations are most acute in Sub-Saharan Africa: at least 53.9 percent
of the population (547 million people) is multidimensionally poor and faces at least
one environmental deprivation. Environmental deprivations are also high in South
Asia: at least 26.8 percent of the population (486 million people) is multidimensionally
poor and lacks access to one of the three environment indicators.

Further resources

Global MPI 2020

• Global MPI Databank – for exploring the data visually and intuitively.
• Country Briefings – detailed summaries of global MPI for each country.
• Data Tables – all of the detailed numbers for all countries in seven tables.
• MPI Methodological Note 49 – technical details behind the measure.
• Stata do-files – for researchers who wish to understand or use the code.

Changes over Time 2020

• Changes over Time Country Briefings – for 80 countries with harmonised poverty
trends.
• Data Table 6 – all national and disaggregated data on poverty trends in one file.
• MPI Methodological Note 50 – details of the harmonisation process and country-
specific decisions.
• Research in Progress 57a – an analysis of the results for 80 countries, including a
comparison of trends in multidimensional and monetary poverty
• Research in Progress 54b – a new paper analysing the 2005/6 to 2015/16 trends of
poverty reduction in India, with new analysis of dominance and robustness.

Global MPI 2020

The global MPI 2020 compares acute multidimensional poverty for 107 countries in
developing regions. These countries are home to 5.9 billion people, three quarters of the
world’s population. Of these people, 1.3 billion people (22%) are identified by the
global MPI as multidimensionally poor.

Goal 1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to end poverty in all its forms
and dimensions. The global MPI 2020 offers a tool to make progress towards this goal.

Produced in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme’s Human

Development Report Office (UNDP HDRO), the global MPI 2020 provides a detailed
image of who is poor and how they are poor. It offers both a global headline and a fine-
grained analysis covering 1,279 subnational regions, and important groups such as
children, and people living in urban or rural areas, together with the indicator
deprivations of each group.

This year – ten years after the launch of the global MPI – we present the first
comprehensive study of harmonised trends in MPI and related statistics for 80 countries
for which data is available. Trend data are likewise disaggregated by groups.
Report and key findings

The joint OPHI and UNDP global MPI report, Global Multidimensional Poverty Index
2020 – Charting Pathways out of Multidimensional Poverty: Achieving the SDGs,
presents the key findings of the global MPI 2020 and the first comprehensive study of
harmonized MPI trends, also known as Changes over Time, indicating that 65 out of 75
countries reduced MPI significantly.

It explores whether before the pandemic countries were on or off track to halve
multidimensional poverty by 2030 – a challenge set by SDG 1 – and finds 47 countries
were on track. In the context of the current crisis, the report simulates possible impacts
of COVID-19 on multidimensional poverty, finding that, if unaddressed, it could set
progress back by up to a decade.

Finally, linkages between the global MPI and other SDG indicators related to climate,
work, immunization, higher education, and urban/rural areas bring together multiple
perspectives on pressing issues in development.

Our analysis covers the significant progress in poverty reduction made by some
countries in the past twenty years, but it is clear that decisive action is needed more than
ever to sustain progress and ensure no one is left behind.

Key findings include:

• Across 107 developing countries and 5.9 billion people, 1.3 billion people—22
percent—live in multidimensional poverty.
• 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.
• About 84 percent of multidimensionally poor people live in Sub-Saharan Africa (558
million) and South Asia (530 million). Two-thirds of multidimensionally poor people
live in middle-income countries.
• 71 percent of the 5.9 billion people covered experience at least one deprivation;
however, the average number of deprivations they experience is five.
• 107 million multidimensionally poor people are age 60 or older—a particularly
importantly figure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 65 countries reduced their Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) value significantly in
absolute terms. Those countries are home to 96 percent of the population of the 75
countries studied for poverty trends.
• The countries with the fastest reduction in MPI value in absolute terms were Sierra
Leone, Mauritania and Liberia, followed by Timor-Leste, Guinea and Rwanda. The
fastest, Sierra Leone (2013–2017), did so during the Ebola epidemic. North Macedonia
had the fastest relative poverty reduction, followed by China, Armenia, Kazakhstan,
Indonesia, Turkmenistan and Mongolia. Each of these countries cut its original MPI
value by at least 12 percent a year.
• Four countries halved their MPI value. India (2005/2006–2015/2016) did so nationally
and among children and had the biggest reduction in the number of
multidimensionally poor people (over 270 million).
• In nearly a third of the countries studied, either there was no reduction in
multidimensional poverty for children, or the MPI value fell more slowly for children
than for adults.
• Pre-COVID-19, 47 countries were on track to halve poverty between 2015 and 2030, if
reported trends continued. But 18 countries, including some of the poorest, were off
track.
• Simulations based on anticipated impacts of the pandemic on just two indicators of
the global MPI – nutrition and school attendance – suggest that, if unaddressed, the
crisis might erase up to a decade’s worth of gains.
• 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.
 • In Sub-Saharan Africa 71.9 percent of people in rural areas (466 million people) are
multidimensionally poor compared with 25.2 percent (92 million people) in urban
areas.
• Environmental deprivations are most acute in Sub-Saharan Africa: at least 53.9 percent
of the population (547 million people) is multidimensionally poor and faces at least
one environmental deprivation. Environmental deprivations are also high in South
Asia: at least 26.8 percent of the population (486 million people) is multidimensionally
poor and lacks access to one of the three environment indicators.

Further resources

Global MPI 2020

• Global MPI Databank – for exploring the data visually and intuitively.
• Country Briefings – detailed summaries of global MPI for each country.
• Data Tables – all of the detailed numbers for all countries in seven tables.
• MPI Methodological Note 49 – technical details behind the measure.
• Stata do-files – for researchers who wish to understand or use the code.

Changes over Time 2020

• Changes over Time Country Briefings – for 80 countries with harmonised poverty
trends.
• Data Table 6 – all national and disaggregated data on poverty trends in one file.
• MPI Methodological Note 50 – details of the harmonisation process and country-
specific decisions.
• Research in Progress 57a – an analysis of the results for 80 countries, including a
comparison of trends in multidimensional and monetary poverty
• Research in Progress 54b – a new paper analysing the 2005/6 to 2015/16 trends of
poverty reduction in India, with new analysis of dominance and robustness.

Global MPI 2020

The global MPI 2020 compares acute multidimensional poverty for 107 countries in
developing regions. These countries are home to 5.9 billion people, three quarters of the
world’s population. Of these people, 1.3 billion people (22%) are identified by the
global MPI as multidimensionally poor.

Goal 1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to end poverty in all its forms
and dimensions. The global MPI 2020 offers a tool to make progress towards this goal.

Produced in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme’s Human

Development Report Office (UNDP HDRO), the global MPI 2020 provides a detailed
image of who is poor and how they are poor. It offers both a global headline and a fine-
grained analysis covering 1,279 subnational regions, and important groups such as
children, and people living in urban or rural areas, together with the indicator
deprivations of each group.

This year – ten years after the launch of the global MPI – we present the first
comprehensive study of harmonised trends in MPI and related statistics for 80 countries
for which data is available. Trend data are likewise disaggregated by groups.
Report and key findings

The joint OPHI and UNDP global MPI report, Global Multidimensional Poverty Index
2020 – Charting Pathways out of Multidimensional Poverty: Achieving the SDGs,
presents the key findings of the global MPI 2020 and the first comprehensive study of
harmonized MPI trends, also known as Changes over Time, indicating that 65 out of 75
countries reduced MPI significantly.

It explores whether before the pandemic countries were on or off track to halve
multidimensional poverty by 2030 – a challenge set by SDG 1 – and finds 47 countries
were on track. In the context of the current crisis, the report simulates possible impacts
of COVID-19 on multidimensional poverty, finding that, if unaddressed, it could set
progress back by up to a decade.

Finally, linkages between the global MPI and other SDG indicators related to climate,
work, immunization, higher education, and urban/rural areas bring together multiple
perspectives on pressing issues in development.

Our analysis covers the significant progress in poverty reduction made by some
countries in the past twenty years, but it is clear that decisive action is needed more than
ever to sustain progress and ensure no one is left behind.

Key findings include:

• Across 107 developing countries and 5.9 billion people, 1.3 billion people—22
percent—live in multidimensional poverty.
• 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.
• About 84 percent of multidimensionally poor people live in Sub-Saharan Africa (558
million) and South Asia (530 million). Two-thirds of multidimensionally poor people
live in middle-income countries.
• 71 percent of the 5.9 billion people covered experience at least one deprivation;
however, the average number of deprivations they experience is five.
• 107 million multidimensionally poor people are age 60 or older—a particularly
importantly figure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 65 countries reduced their Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) value significantly in
absolute terms. Those countries are home to 96 percent of the population of the 75
countries studied for poverty trends.
• The countries with the fastest reduction in MPI value in absolute terms were Sierra
Leone, Mauritania and Liberia, followed by Timor-Leste, Guinea and Rwanda. The
fastest, Sierra Leone (2013–2017), did so during the Ebola epidemic. North Macedonia
had the fastest relative poverty reduction, followed by China, Armenia, Kazakhstan,
Indonesia, Turkmenistan and Mongolia. Each of these countries cut its original MPI
value by at least 12 percent a year.
• Four countries halved their MPI value. India (2005/2006–2015/2016) did so nationally
and among children and had the biggest reduction in the number of
multidimensionally poor people (over 270 million).
• In nearly a third of the countries studied, either there was no reduction in
multidimensional poverty for children, or the MPI value fell more slowly for children
than for adults.
• Pre-COVID-19, 47 countries were on track to halve poverty between 2015 and 2030, if
reported trends continued. But 18 countries, including some of the poorest, were off
track.
• Simulations based on anticipated impacts of the pandemic on just two indicators of
the global MPI – nutrition and school attendance – suggest that, if unaddressed, the
crisis might erase up to a decade’s worth of gains.
• 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.
 • In Sub-Saharan Africa 71.9 percent of people in rural areas (466 million people) are
multidimensionally poor compared with 25.2 percent (92 million people) in urban
areas.
• Environmental deprivations are most acute in Sub-Saharan Africa: at least 53.9 percent
of the population (547 million people) is multidimensionally poor and faces at least
one environmental deprivation. Environmental deprivations are also high in South
Asia: at least 26.8 percent of the population (486 million people) is multidimensionally
poor and lacks access to one of the three environment indicators.

Further resources

Global MPI 2020

• Global MPI Databank – for exploring the data visually and intuitively.
• Country Briefings – detailed summaries of global MPI for each country.
• Data Tables – all of the detailed numbers for all countries in seven tables.
• MPI Methodological Note 49 – technical details behind the measure.
• Stata do-files – for researchers who wish to understand or use the code.

Changes over Time 2020

• Changes over Time Country Briefings – for 80 countries with harmonised poverty
trends.
• Data Table 6 – all national and disaggregated data on poverty trends in one file.
• MPI Methodological Note 50 – details of the harmonisation process and country-
specific decisions.
• Research in Progress 57a – an analysis of the results for 80 countries, including a
comparison of trends in multidimensional and monetary poverty
• Research in Progress 54b – a new paper analysing the 2005/6 to 2015/16 trends of
poverty reduction in India, with new analysis of dominance and robustness.