NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / – The first increase in global multidimensional poverty since its inception in 2010 has been recorded. The 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index indicates that 1.2 billion individuals are living in severe deprivation across 108 nations. This figure accounts for 18.9% of the 6.3 billion people included in the study. Compared to the previous report, the total has grown by 51.5 million. The index evaluates hardships related to health, education, and living standards, rather than solely income levels.
Produced collaboratively by the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, the latest findings analyze 10 indicators. These include nutrition, child mortality, schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, and household assets. A household is considered multidimensionally poor if its deprivations, weighted collectively, reach at least one-third of the total. This approach captures multiple simultaneous hardships faced by households.
Children constitute over half of those identified as multidimensionally poor globally, with around 617 million children affected, representing 51.5% of the total. Nearly one-third of children measured by the index live under conditions of multidimensional poverty. Rural areas are disproportionately impacted, with approximately 83% of the multidimensionally poor residing there. These statistics highlight enduring deficiencies in essential services, education, and living conditions across many nations.
Sub-Saharan Africa reports the highest proportion
The region of Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest number of people living in multidimensional poverty, totaling about 616 million, which makes up 51.4% of its population included in the index. The 2026 report incorporates new survey data from 13 countries and offers subnational estimates for 1,360 regions across 100 nations. Population updates affected the results, especially in countries without recent household surveys, leading to an addition of 15.8 million people to the total count in 95 of these countries.
National trends vary considerably among countries with comparable historical data. While Egypt, Nepal, and Tajikistan experienced declines in both their multidimensional poverty rates and the number of affected individuals, Angola and Zambia lowered their share of residents living under such conditions. However, due to population growth, their total numbers still rose. Nigeria saw increases in both its poverty rate and the population affected, reversing earlier improvements. These findings illustrate that global figures can conceal diverse national trajectories.
Many nations have achieved sustained reductions in poverty
Long-term data also reflect significant declines in multidimensional poverty across various regions. Out of 89 countries with trend information, 33 managed to halve their MPI values within 15 years. Six of these are situated in Sub-Saharan Africa. Eswatini reduced its multidimensional poverty rate from 38.7% to 8.0%. China demonstrated the fastest rate of reduction among countries with available data, decreasing from 9.5% to 4.2% between 2010 and 2014. Viet Nam also cut its MPI in half within just seven years.
The 1.2 billion figure diverges from global estimates of extreme income poverty, as the latter are based solely on income thresholds. Multidimensional poverty considers multiple disadvantages—such as inadequate education, poor nutrition, unsafe sanitation, and limited access to electricity or clean water—that can occur simultaneously. Therefore, this measure offers a more comprehensive understanding of deprivation, placing children, rural populations, and Sub-Saharan Africa at the forefront of the latest global poverty increase.