Poverty Count Reaches 1.2 Billion as Children Bear the Weight of Overlapping Hardship

Children account for 617 million of those affected, more than half the total, and 83 percent of people experiencing multidimensional poverty live in rural areas.

Hunger, missed schooling and homes without clean water or electricity are overlapping realities for 1.2 billion people living in acute multidimensional poverty, according to the 2026 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). Published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford, the update records 51.5 million more people in poverty than the previous edition on a like-for-like basis, marking the first increase since the index launched in 2010. Children account for 617 million of those affected, more than half the total, and 83 percent of people experiencing multidimensional poverty live in rural areas.

What poverty means beyond a household's income

The MPI measures hardship through ten weighted indicators covering health, education and living standards, recognising that a family's income cannot fully explain the difficulties shaping everyday life. People are classified as multidimensionally poor when they experience deprivation in at least one-third of these weighted indicators, capturing how problems such as poor nutrition, limited schooling and inadequate basic services can reinforce one another. The 2026 update covers 108 countries in developing regions, representing 78 percent of the world's population, and examines both how widespread poverty is and the depth of hardship people experience.

UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo described the increase as "a wake-up call for the world," pointing to the human lives behind the figures and the need to address connected hardships together. His message draws attention to families facing several barriers at once, for whom improvements in a single service may leave other serious needs unresolved. Countries that have tackled these challenges together offer evidence that determined action can change people's circumstances.

Why the number has risen despite progress

Population growth explains part of the increase, making the headline figure more complicated than a simple measure of worsening living conditions. In 95 countries without new survey data this year, updated population estimates added 15.8 million to the number counted as poor. The remaining change reflects a combination of shifts in poverty rates, demographic changes and differences in indicator coverage between survey rounds, so the entire increase cannot be interpreted as newly measured deterioration in household circumstances.

New MPI estimates for 13 countries reveal different experiences, with five recording significant reductions in the proportion of people living in multidimensional poverty. Egypt, Nepal and Tajikistan significantly reduced both their poverty rates and the number of people affected; Angola and Zambia lowered their poverty rates, but population growth outpaced those gains, leaving more people in poverty overall. Nigeria's experience shows how progress can unravel, with significant reductions during the 2010s followed by increases in both the poverty rate and the number of people affected during the 2020s.

Countries showing that substantial reductions are possible

Among 89 countries with MPI trend data, 33 halved their MPI value in fewer than 15 years, including six in Sub-Saharan Africa. Eswatini's poverty rate fell from 38.7 percent to 8.0 percent over 15 years, demonstrating the scale of improvement countries can achieve. China recorded the fastest reduction among countries with available data, halving its MPI value in four years as the share of people in multidimensional poverty dropped from 9.5 percent in 2010 to 4.2 percent in 2014; Viet Nam halved its MPI value within seven years.

Sustainable Development Goal target 1.2 calls for countries to halve the proportion of men, women and children living in poverty in all its dimensions by 2030. Halving an MPI value, which reflects both poverty's incidence and intensity, is a different measure from halving the proportion of people affected. The country examples demonstrate that substantial progress is possible, giving governments practical reasons to strengthen action on the connected hardships affecting children, families and rural communities.