Multidimensional Poverty

Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) complements standard income poverty indicators (which define poverty as percent of population living at 1.25, 2, 2.5 etc. dollars a day) by taking into account deprivation aspect of poverty. Thus, for many people being poor means not only lack of money but also limited access to education, nutrition, sanitation, water and so on. MPI concept embraces this idea by defining the poor as those who are simultaneously deprived in several of these things. More specifically, MPI is based on 10 indicators which are grouped into three categories: health, education and living standards (following the Human Development Index (HDI) methodology). Indicators represent a set of deprivations with weights, so that weights across dimensions are equal and weights for each indicator within dimensions are equal. If an individual suffers from one of the deprivations (e.g. no household member has completed five years of schooling) then he gets "1" multiplied by weight of this indicator (continuing our example it would be 1*1/6). Then values of all 10 indicators multiplied by their weights are summed to get the individual deprivation score - % of 10 deprivations which the individual faces. MPI poor are defined as those who have more than one third of 10 deprivations. The share of such people in the total country's population is named "Headcount ratio: population in multidimensional poverty" while the average value of individual deprivation scores of MPI poor people gives indicator "Intensity of deprivation among the poor". The overall MPI score for the country is the result of multiplying one by another. So, the index takes into account both poverty headcount and poverty severity. Except the poor MPI also considers the following categories: vulnerable to poverty (those who experience intensity of deprivation between 20 and 32.9%), in severe poverty (with deprivation intensity higher than 50%) and destitute or "the poorest of the poor" - those who live in even more extreme conditions than the poor do. In terms of measuring destitution MPI uses absolutely the same methodology but employs more rigid criteria of deprivations, for example, not "No household member has completed five years of schooling" but "No household member has completed at least one year of schooling". The list of deprivations, corresponding criteria used to define MPI poor (and MPI destitute in brackets) and indicators' weights is presented below:
Years of Schooling - No household member has completed five years (at least one year) of schooling. 1/6;
Child School Attendance - Any school-aged child is (no school-aged children are) not attending school up to class 8 (6). 1/6;
Child Mortality - Any child has (2 or more children have) died in the family. 1/6;
Nutrition - Any adult or child for whom there is nutritional information is malnourished (severely malnourished: BMI<17kg/m2 for adults and -3 standard deviations from the median for children). 1/6;
Electricity - The household has no electricity (the same). 1/18;
Improved Sanitation - The household’s sanitation facility is not improved (according to MDG guidelines), or it is improved but shared with other households (there is no sanitation facility: open defecation). 1/18;
Improved Drinking Water - The household does not have access to improved drinking water (according to MDG guidelines) or safe drinking water is more than a 30-minute (45-minute) walk from home, roundtrip. 1/18;
Flooring - The household has a dirt, sand or dung floor (the same). 1/18;
Cooking Fuel - The household cooks with dung, wood or charcoal (with dung or wood: coal/lignite/charcoal are now non-deprived). 1/18;
Assets ownership - The household does not own more than one radio, TV, telephone, bike, motorbike or refrigerator (has no assets) and does not own a car or truck. 1/18.

Multidimensional Poverty Index by area of residence: total | urban | rural

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