Global MPI 2025: $1.1$ Billion People Trapped in Poverty and Climate Hazards

Global MPI 2025: $1.1$ Billion People Trapped in Poverty and Climate Hazards
———————————————
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2025 report, titled “Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards,” reveals that $1.1$ billion people across 109 countries live in acute multidimensional poverty.

More details in the following report:

Crucially, the report, cited on Reliefweb, finds a stark “double burden,” with the vast majority of the world’s poor simultaneously exposed to severe climate threats.

The MPI, published by the UNDP and OPHI, shows that 18.3% of the world’s population lives in acute multidimensional poverty. A staggering 80% of these people (887 million) reside in regions facing at least one of four major climate hazards: high heat, drought, floods, and air pollution. The risks are often concurrent: 651 million poor people face two or more hazards at once, while 309 million face three or four. The most common threats are high heat (608 million) and air pollution (577 million).

Multidimensional poverty remains heavily concentrated among specific groups. Children are disproportionately affected, accounting for more than half (51%) of all poor people ($586$ million). Geographically, the crisis is centered in Sub-Saharan Africa (565 million poor) and South Asia (390 million poor), which together hold 83.2% of the global poor.

The report highlights that 83.5% of all multidimensionally poor people reside in rural areas. Additionally, nearly two-thirds (64.5%, or 740 million) of the poor live in middle-income countries, identifying them as a critical but often overlooked “hidden epicentre” of global poverty. The most widespread deprivations relate to living standards, with 970 million lacking clean cooking fuel and 878 million living in inadequate housing.

The 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report “Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards”, released ahead of the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, presents new evidence that the climate crisis is reshaping global poverty. The findings emphasize that poor people globally are often confronting multiple, concurrent environmental challenges rather than a single one in isolation.