Rising poverty is ‘a wake-up call to the world’, says UN development chief

These findings appeared in 2026 update The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the University of Oxford, which measures overlapping hardship in health, education and living standards.

The 1.2 billion figure represents 51.5 million more people than in the 2025 update. Of this number, more than half are children – 617 million – and 83 percent live in rural areas.

‘This is unacceptable’

“The increasing poverty rate should be a warning to the world,” said UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo.

“Behind these numbers are 1.2 billion people facing mutually reinforcing hardships: hunger, not attending school, and lack of clean water or electricity. This is unacceptable.”

This index was developed in 2010 to measure poverty beyond people’s income.

Overlapping deprivation

This report examines 10 indicators of health, education and living standards, such as child nutrition and mortality, years of schooling, and access to electricity, drinking water and sanitation.

A person is considered “multidimensionally poor” if they are deficient in one third or more of the indicators.

Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia account for most of the shortfalls in each indicator.

A mixed picture, fragile success

The 2026 update – which covers 108 countries, representing about 78 percent of the global population – reveals that the increase in poverty is due in part to population growth outstripping efforts to improve living standards.

In 95 countries where new survey data were not available, the updated population estimates increased the number of poor by nearly 16 million people.

Other increases came from the 13 countries where data was collected, reflecting real changes in poverty rates and related demographic changes, as well as differences in indicator coverage.

Recent surveys also show a mixed picture on the ground. Five of these countries – Egypt, Nepal, Tajikistan, Angola and Zambia – have reduced the number of people living in multidimensional poverty, but population growth is outstripping poverty reduction in Angola and Zambia, meaning that the number of people living in poverty is still increasing.

Meanwhile, Nigeria provides an example of how fragile progress in tackling poverty is. Although the country has succeeded in significantly reducing multidimensional poverty in the 2010s, both the poverty rate and the number of people struggling to make ends meet have increased.

‘Progress possible’

The international community has pledged to reduce the proportion of people living in poverty by at least half before the end of the decade, in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The authors of the 2026 MPI update are confident that this target is achievable.

“We know progress is possible,” insisted Mr. De Croo. “Countries that have overcome these challenges together, rather than separately, have shown what can be achieved with persistent action.”

UNDP reports that 33 countries have halved their MPI scores in less than 15 years, including six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Eswatini, the number of people living in multidimensional poverty has fallen from almost 39 percent to eight percent.

Meanwhile, China recorded the fastest decline among countries for which data is available by halving its MPI value from 9.5 percent to 4.2 percent in just four years (2010-2014).

This shows that many countries continue to make progress, with some succeeding in reducing poverty quickly and on a large scale. This underscores the importance of the new measure and its likelihood of success, the agency said.