Global MPI 2026: 238 Million Indians Are Multidimensionally Poor, and Another 19% Are Close to the Line
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) released the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2026 Statistical Update in October 2026. It covers 108 developing countries.
For India, the index says 16.4% of people are multidimensionally poor. Applied to India's 2024 population, that is about 238 million people (237.8 million). "Multidimensionally poor" means a person lacks many basic things at the same time, such as enough food, schooling, clean cooking fuel or a proper house.
Another 18.7% of Indians (about 271 million people) are vulnerable: they are not yet counted as poor, but they lack enough basic things that one shock (an illness, a crop loss) could push them into poverty.
India's figures still rest on the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5, 2019-21), the latest survey data publicly available for the calculation. India's poverty rate on this measure had fallen from 55.1% in 2005-06 to 16.4% in 2019-21.
Living standards (cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing and assets) make up the biggest share of India's poverty, at about 40% (39.7%).
Worldwide, the report counts about 1.2 billion multidimensionally poor people. It reports that the number of poor people rose in 2025, mainly because of population growth in the poorest countries, the first such rise since the index began. About half of the world's poor are children, and over four-fifths live in rural areas.
Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): Measuring Poverty Beyond Income
The Multidimensional Poverty Index, or MPI, is a way of measuring poverty by looking at what people actually lack in their daily lives, not only how much money they earn. It checks 10 basic things in three areas: health, education and living standards. If a person lacks enough of these things at the same time, the MPI counts them as poor. The Global MPI is produced every year by the UNDP and Oxford University, and India also has its own National MPI made by NITI Aayog.
The 2026 update uses this exact method to count about 238 million Indians as multidimensionally poor and another 271 million as vulnerable. It shows that living standards, such as cooking fuel, housing and sanitation, are the biggest part of India's remaining poverty. It also reminds us that India's figure rests on 2019-21 survey data, so newer NFHS-6 data could change the picture.
Poverty Measurement in India: Methods and Debates
Poverty measurement in India means deciding who counts as poor and how many such people there are. For most of India's history after Independence, this was done with a poverty line: a fixed amount of money a person needs each month to meet basic needs. Anyone whose spending fell below this line was counted as poor. Over time, many expert committees changed how this line was drawn, and today India also uses non-money measures like the Multidimensional Poverty Index.
The Global MPI 2026 is one of the measures India now uses alongside, and in place of, an official money-based poverty line. The report itself shows the gap: about 5.3% of Indians fall below the World Bank's $3.00 money line, but 16.4% are multidimensionally poor. This is why the debate on how to measure poverty in India remains live.
National Family Health Survey (NFHS)
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is India's largest household survey on health, nutrition and family welfare. It is run by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai as the nodal agency. It is also the data source for India's figures in both the Global MPI and NITI Aayog's National MPI.
Every one of India's 10 global MPI indicators, from child nutrition to cooking fuel, is calculated from NFHS household data. Because the full NFHS-6 data was not yet available for the calculation, the 2026 update still uses NFHS-5 (2019-21), which is why the 238 million figure reflects conditions from before 2022.
- Global MPI 2026 Statistical Update: released October 2026 by UNDP and OPHI; covers 108 developing countries
- India: 16.4% multidimensionally poor (about 237.8 million people in 2024)
- India: 18.7% vulnerable (about 271.1 million people); 4.2% in severe poverty
- India: intensity 42.0%; MPI value 0.069
- India's poverty contribution: standard of living 39.7%, health 32.2%, education 28.2%
- India's MPI data source: NFHS-5 (2019-21)
- India's MPI headcount: 55.1% (2005-06) → 16.4% (2019-21)
- Bangladesh MPI 0.067 (14.9%); Pakistan 0.198 (38.3%); South Asia 0.090 (19.9%)
- India below $3.00/day (2021 PPP): 5.3%, about 11 percentage points lower than the MPI headcount
- Global: about 1.2 billion multidimensionally poor; about half are children; over four-fifths live in rural areas
- Poor = deprivation score ≥ 1/3; vulnerable = 1/5 to under 1/3; severe = ≥ 1/2