The 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index recorded 51.5 million more people living in poverty than the previous year.
More than half of those affected are children, with 617 million experiencing multidimensional poverty. About 83% of affected people live in rural communities. “The rise in poverty should be a wake-up call for the world,” United Nations (UN) Development Programme Administrator Alexander De Croo said.
“Behind these figures are 1.2 billion people facing hardships that reinforce one another: hunger, missed schooling and a lack of clean water or electricity. This is unacceptable.”
The UNDP and Oxford University developed the Index to measure poverty beyond income.
The assessment uses 10 indicators covering nutrition, child mortality, schooling and access to electricity, drinking water and sanitation.
A person is considered multidimensionally poor when deprived in at least one-third of the indicators.
Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia account for the overwhelming majority of deprivation across all indicators.
The 2026 update covers 108 countries representing about 78% of the global population.
Population growth contributed to the increase. Revised population estimates added nearly 16 million people to the total in 95 countries where no new household survey data was available.
Egypt, Nepal, Tajikistan, Angola and Zambia reduced the proportion of people experiencing multidimensional poverty.
However, population growth exceeded the pace of poverty reduction in Angola and Zambia, resulting in an increase in the total number of affected people.
Nigeria recorded increases in both the poverty rate and number of people affected, reversing some progress achieved during the 2010s.
UNDP said 33 countries had halved multidimensional poverty within 15 years, including six in sub-Saharan Africa.
In eSwatini, the proportion of people experiencing multidimensional poverty declined from nearly 39% to 8%.
“We know progress is possible,” De Croo said.
“Countries that have tackled these challenges together, rather than in isolation, have shown what determined action can achieve.”
–UN/ChannelAfrica–
