Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is a relatively new measure of poverty. It was developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in conjunction with Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) in 2010.
The conventional way of measuring poverty is by considering the amount of money a person has. But MPI goes beyond that by taking into account the lack of access to basic needs. Ten indicators are investigated across three areas or dimensions. Each dimension has a total weighting of 33.3%.
A person is considered multidimensionally poor if he or she is deprived in three (33%) or more weighted indicators.
| Poverty Dimension | Indicator | The household lacks |
| Living standard | Sanitation | Sanitation facility not improved or shared with other households. |
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water or drinking water located far from home. | |
| Cooking fuel | Uses dung, wood, coal or charcoal. | |
| Ownership of assets | Does not own more than one of: television, radio, computer, telephone, bicycle, motorbike, refrigerator, animal cart, car or truck. | |
| Electricity | No electricity. | |
| Housing | At least one of the three housing materials for roof, walls and floor are inadequate, i.e. made of natural or rudimentary materials. | |
| Education | Years of schooling | No household member aged ‘school entrance age + six years’ or older has completed at least six years of schooling. |
| School attendance | Any school-aged child is not attending school up to the age at which he/she would complete class eight. | |
| Health | Nutrition | Any adult under 70 years of age or any child for whom there is nutritional information is undernourished. |
| Child mortality | Any child under the age of 18 years has died in the family in the five-year period preceding the survey. |