OPHI

You are here: Home

New Multidimensional Poverty Index analysis launched ~ 7 December 2011

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute poverty developed by OPHI for the UNDP’s flagship Human Development Report. It covers 109 developing countries. On 7 December, new work on sub-national disparities in multidimensional poverty was launched by OPHI.

Presentations of the new work by Sabina Alkire, José Manuel Roche and Suman Seth were followed by responses from Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University and Professor James Foster, George Washington University.

What’s new?

• In 2011, the MPI has been calculated for 5 new countries and updated for 20
• The MPI has been calculated for sub-national regions across 66 countries
• Changes of MPI over time have been analysed for 10 countries

Key findings include:

• 1.65 billion people are identified as MPI poor.
• Over twice as many poor people live in middle-income countries
• 50% of the MPI poor people live in South Asia and 29% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• In low- income countries, the percentage of poor people ranges from 5% in Kyrgyzstan to 92% in Niger. In middle-income countries it ranges from 0% in Belarus to 77% in Angola.
• Multidimensional poverty within countries varies greatly. Nepal is poorer according to the MPI than Cambodia, but Cambodia’s poorest region is poorer than the poorest region of Nepal.
• Poverty reduction over time varies by dimension. Bangladesh reduced poverty across all dimensions; Kenya reduced its MPI mainly through improvements in living standards.

Read more about the new analysis for the MPI 2011:

• NEW - Research Brief - key findings for 2011
• NEW - One page summary - 2011 findings, in brief
• NEW - Country profiles MPI facts by country, including new sub-national poverty data for 66 countries
• NEW - Data tables – updated for data tables, featuring sub-national data and changes to MPI over time
• NEW - Poverty maps – explore MPI results at the national and sub-national level
• NEW - Press Release - headline findings of the 2011 MPI
• NEW - Case studies from the ground - new stories from Bhutan and Dominican Republic
• About the MPI – read OPHI’s updated MPI pages
• Read the HDR 2011 – visit the UNDP HDRO website

Why did my country’s MPI change? Click for an overview of country changes in 2011

The MPI in the 2011 Human Development Report

On 2 November, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched the Human Development Report 2011: Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All. MPI country-level data for 109 countries was released for in this report, along with analysis of environmental poverty through the MPI lens and unmet need for family planning among the multidimensionally poor.

Podcasts

Audio and video content introducing OPHI work on multidimensional poverty measurement and the missing dimensions of poverty data, plus lectures from OPHI’s advisors such as Amartya Sen.