UN report says 1.1 billion people in acute poverty

UNITED NATIONS, United States: More than one billion people are living in acute poverty across the globe, a UN Development Programme report said on Thursday, with children accounting for over half of those affected.

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 most conflicts around the world since the Second World War.

The UNDP and the OPHI have published their Multidimensional Poverty Index annually since 2010, harvesting data from 112 countries with a combined population of 6.3 billion people.

It uses indicators such as a lack of adequate housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, nutrition and school attendance.

“The 2024 MPI paints a sobering picture: 1.1 billion people endure multidimensional poverty, of which 455 million live in the shadow of conflict,” said Yanchun Zhang, chief statistician at the UNDP.

The report echoed last year´s findings that 1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people across 110 countries were facing extreme multidimensional poverty.

Thursday´s paper showed that some 584 million people under 18 were experiencing extreme poverty, accounting for 27.9 percent of children worldwide, compared with 13.5 percent of adults.