One billion people around the world live in extreme poverty, with children making up more than half of those affected, according to a report from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The paper published with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) highlighted that poverty rates were three times higher in countries at war, as 2023 saw the highest number of conflicts worldwide since the Second World War worldwide.
UNDP and OPHI have published their Multidimensional Poverty Index every year since 2010, collecting data from 112 countries with a combined population of 6.3 billion people.
It uses indicators such as lack of adequate housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, nutrition and school attendance.
“The 2024 MPI paints a sobering picture: 1.1 billion people suffer from multidimensional poverty, including 455 million living in the shadow of conflict,” said Yanchun Zhang, UNDP chief statistician.
The report echoes last year’s findings that 1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people in 110 countries faced extreme multidimensional poverty.
Thursday’s report showed that some 584 million people under the age of 18 live in extreme poverty, representing 27.9% of the world’s children, compared to 13.5% of adults. It also showed that 83.2% of the world’s poorest people live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
India was the country with the highest number of people in extreme poverty, affecting 234 million people out of a population of 1.4 billion.
It was followed by Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. These five countries accounted for almost half of the 1.1 billion poor people.
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