Question: How many people live in multidimensional poverty in 2026?
Answer: About 1.2 billion people live in acute multidimensional poverty, according to the 2026 update of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released on October 12, 2026, by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). That is 51.5 million more than the previous update on a like-for-like basis, and it is the first increase since the index began in 2010. More than half of those people, 617 million, are children, and 83 percent live in rural areas.
The MPI looks beyond income: a person counts as multidimensionally poor if they are deprived in at least one-third of ten weighted indicators covering health, education, and living standards. The 2026 update covers 108 developing countries that hold 78 percent of the world’s population. Part of the rise comes from population growth, which added 15.8 million people to the count in 95 countries without new survey data.
