UN Development Programme reports multidimensional poverty rose for the first time since 2010, to 1.2 billion people

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said the number of people living in “multidimensional” poverty has risen for the first time in 15 years, reaching 1.2 billion. The agency published the finding in the 2026 update of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index, produced with Oxford University. UN News, the UN's own news service, carried the report. UNDP is a UN agency, so the UN is here reporting on its own figures.

The 1.2 billion is 51.5 million more people than in the 2025 update. UNDP said more than half of them are children, 617 million, and that 83 per cent live in rural areas. The French edition of UN News gave further regional counts. It put the number of poor people in sub-Saharan Africa at 616 million, which it said is more than half of all poor people and more than in all other regions combined. It said 355 million of the poor children live in sub-Saharan Africa and 181 million in South Asia. The Spanish edition said Latin America has 33 million people in multidimensional poverty.

The index was developed in 2010 to measure poverty beyond what people earn. It uses 10 indicators of health, education and standard of living, such as nutrition, years of schooling and access to electricity, drinking water and sanitation. A person counts as poor if deprived in one-third or more of the indicators. The 2026 update covers 108 countries, which UNDP said represent some 78 per cent of the global population.

UNDP said the rise is partly due to population growth outpacing efforts to improve living standards. In 95 countries with no new survey data, updated population estimates raised the number of people counted as poor by nearly 16 million. The rest of the increase comes from 13 countries where new data was gathered. UNDP said it reflects real change in poverty, demographic change and differences in the indicators covered.

The new surveys showed a mixed picture. Five countries, Egypt, Nepal, Tajikistan, Angola and Zambia, reduced the share of their people in multidimensional poverty. In Angola and Zambia, population growth outpaced that reduction, so the total number of poor people still rose. UNDP said Nigeria made significant reductions in the 2010s, but both its poverty rate and its number of poor people have since increased.

UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo said: “The rise in poverty should be a wake-up call for the world.” He also said: “This is unacceptable.” He added: “We know progress is possible.”

UNDP reported that 33 countries have halved their index value in fewer than 15 years, six of them in sub-Saharan Africa. In Eswatini, the share of people in multidimensional poverty fell from nearly 39 per cent to eight per cent. China recorded the fastest fall among countries with available data, from 9.5 per cent to 4.2 per cent in four years (2010-2014). The French edition said Viet Nam halved its value in seven years.

The international community has pledged to cut the proportion of people in poverty by at least half before the end of this decade. The authors of the 2026 update believe that target is achievable. This paper cannot check the figures. It reports what UNDP and the authors of the index said.