Research finds 1.1 billion people in multidimensional poverty, with nearly a half-billion in conflict settings

New research from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) has found that poverty rates in conflict-affected nations are almost three times higher than in countries free from conflict.

A staggering 455 million of the world’s poor live in countries exposed to violent conflict, hindering and even reversing hard-won progress to reduce poverty, according to the latest update of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released today.

Jointly published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) in the University of Oxford, this year’s report found that 1.1 billion people live in acute poverty worldwide, with 40% living in countries experiencing war, fragility and/or low peacefulness.

Professor Sabina Alkire, Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative in the Oxford Department of International Development, said, “This study provides the first measured global analysis at this scale examining how many multidimensionally poor people are affected by war, fragility and low peacefulness.

“We found that the level of poverty in conflict-affected areas is far higher. In countries at war, over one in three people are poor (34.8%) whereas, in non-conflict-affected countries, according to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, it’s one in nine (10.9%). And, sadly, poverty reduction is slower in conflict settings, which means that the poor in conflict settings are being left behind. These numbers compel a response: We cannot end poverty without investing in positive peace.”

Countries at war have higher deprivations compared with non-conflict settings across all ten indicators of multidimensional poverty, underscoring the devastating impact of conflict on the world’s most vulnerable populations. In conflict-affected countries:

• Child mortality rates are nearly eight times higher among poor people (8.0% vs. 1.1%).
• Over one in four poor people lack access to electricity, compared to just over one in twenty in stable regions (26.9% vs. 5.6%).
• Access to education is four times worse for children from poor families (17.7% vs. 4.4%).
• Poorer people are almost three times less likely to receive suitable nutrition (20.8% vs. 7.2%).

The report features an in-depth case study on Afghanistan, where 5.3 million additional people fell into multidimensional poverty between 2015-16 and 2022-3. In the aftermath of the conflict, between 2022-23, nearly two-thirds of the population (64.9%) were living in poverty.

“Conflicts have intensified and multiplied in recent years, reaching new highs in casualties, displacing record millions of people, and causing widespread disruption to lives and livelihoods,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator. “Our new research shows we must accelerate action to support people living in multidimensional poverty. We need resources and access for specialized development and early recovery interventions to help break the cycle of poverty and crisis.”

In addition to the in-depth analyses of poverty in conflict settings, the latest MPI report offers nuanced insights on the lived experience of poor people and trends in poverty reduction around the world:

• Over half of the 1.1 billion poor people are children under the age of 18 (584 million). Globally, 27.9% of children live in poverty, compared with 13.5% of adults.
• Large proportions of the 1.1 billion poor people lack adequate sanitation (828 million), housing (886 million) or cooking fuel (998 million).
• Well over half of the 1.1 billion poor people live with a person who is undernourished in their household (637 million). In South Asia, 272 million poor people live in households with at least one undernourished person, and in Sub- Saharan Africa, 256 million do.
• Of 86 countries with harmonized data, 76 significantly reduced poverty according to the MPI value in at least one time period.
• Of 17 countries with trend data that ends in 2021-22 or later, seven spanning at least part of the COVID-19 pandemic, only nine (Benin, Cambodia, Comoros, the Kingdom of Eswatini, Kenya, Mozambique, the Philippines, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Trinidad and Tobago) experienced significant reductions in both MPI value and incidence of poverty.

Since its inception in 2010, the global MPI has been instrumental as an analytical tool to identify the most vulnerable people, revealing poverty patterns within countries and over time, and enabling policymakers to target resources and design policies more effectively. Covering 112 countries and 6.3 billion people, it is disaggregated by age, rural-urban area, 1,359 subnational regions and gender of the household head. All data tables, files, and .pdf country briefings are online, as are methodological notes and an interactive databank.