The global MPI is composed of three dimensions (health, education, and living standards) and ten indicators. Each dimension is equally weighted, and each indicator within a dimension is also equally weighted. A person is identified as multidimensionally poor if they are deprived in at least one third of the weighted indicators. The MPI identifies overlapping deprivations for each person. It shows the incidence of poor people in a population and the intensity of deprivations faced within poor households.
Incidence of poverty: the proportion (%) of the population who are multidimensionally poor (those who are deprived in at least one third of the weighted indicators). This is also sometimes referred to as the ‘headcount ratio’ or the ‘poverty rate’ Intensity of poverty: the average share (%) of deprivations across the ten weighted indicators which people experience simultaneously.
MPI: The MPI ‘value’, which ranges from zero to one, is calculated by multiplying the incidence of poverty by the intensity of poverty. It shows the proportion of deprivations that a country’s poor people experience out of the total possible deprivations that would be experienced if every person in the society were poor and deprived in every indicator. The MPI therefore increases or decreases when either the incidence and/or the intensity of poverty changes.
Number of poor: The number of multidimensionally poor people in a country is important for budgeting and targeting, and reflects both demographic change and population growth. It is computed by multiplying the population of the country by the incidence of MPI.