OPHI has developed a new international measure of poverty – the Multidimensional Poverty Index or MPI – for the 20th Anniversary edition of the United Nations Development Programme’s flagship Human Development Report. 

The new innovative index goes beyond a traditional focus on income to reflect the multiple deprivations that a poor person faces with respect to education, health and living standards. This brief summarises the new method and key findings and shows how the MPI can be used. 

OPHI analysed data from 104 countries with a combined population of 5.2 billion (78 per cent of the world total) using the MPI. The results should be considered the first analysis of multidimensional poverty rather than a comprehensive ranking. The 2010 MPI was created to reflect poverty in less developed countries.

• Alkire, S., and Santos, M.E., (2010). 'Multidimensional Poverty Index 2010', OPHI Briefing 01, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford. (8 pages)
• OPHI (2010). 'Multidimensional Poverty Index 2010', OPHI Briefing 02, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford. (2 pages)
• Alkire, S. and Santos, M.E., (2010). 'Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries.' OPHI Working Papers 38, University of Oxford. (Also published as UNDP HDR Background Paper 2010/11 and in World Development 59: 251-274)
• OPHI (2010). 'Illuminating people’s lives: Human experiences of multidimensional poverty', Case studies, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford. 
• Alkire, S., Santos, M.E., Seth, S., Yalonetzky, G., (2010). 'Is the Multidimensional Poverty Index robust to different weights?', OPHI Briefing 03, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford. 
• Alkire, S., (2010). 'The Multidimensional Poverty Index and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Showing interconnections', OPHI Briefing 04, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), University of Oxford.