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Multidimensional Poverty Index

The global Multidimensional Poverty Index, published each year by UNDP and OPHI, measures acute poverty from household survey data across ten indicators of health, education and living standards; a person deprived in at least a third of the weighted indicators counts as poor, and the MPI value (0-1) is the poverty headcount multiplied by the average intensity of deprivation. For India it is computed from the National Family Health Surveys (DHS), so it shows how many people lack basics such as nutrition, schooling, cooking fuel, sanitation and housing, independent of income. On the harmonised series in the 2025 report, India's MPI fell from 0.283 (55.1% of people poor) in 2005-2006 to 0.069 (16.4%) in 2019-2021.