The global multidimensional poverty index (MPI) 2021

Working paper

This 51st Methodological Note presents the methodology and technical decisions behind the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2021 and the results presented in Tables 1–8. This document is part of OPHI MPI Methodological Notes series. A Methodological Note is published for every release of the global MPI.

The 2021 global MPI presents results on multidimensional poverty, using the most recent data from 109 countries, covering 5.9 billion people, and including trends over time in 84 countries. The estimation of MPI and its partial indices are further disaggregated by age groups, rural/urban areas, and subnational regions. A new element in this 2021 round is that we have disaggregated by gender of household head (female and male) and present results for three points in time for 28 of the 84 countries with harmonised estimates. This document jointly presents the policies that underlie our current margin estimates and the harmonised over time estimates.

This document is structured as follows. Section 2 presents the global MPI structure and indicator definitions. Section 3 provides an outline of the global MPI and its partial indices that we estimate and publish. Section 4 summarises the changes over time methodology. Section 5 outlines the data management policies of the global MPI; while section 6 details the decisions that underlie our harmonisation work. Section 7 provides a summary of survey details. Section 8 summarises the country-specific technical decisions that were applied for each of these new surveys. We conclude with a couple of closing remarks.

Authors: Alkire, S; Kanagaratnam, U; Suppa, N

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)
• Issue: 51
• Pages: 1-39
• Article number: 51
• Series: OPHI MPI Methodological Notes
• Publication date: 2021-10-07
• Paper number: 51
• Language: English
• Keywords: poverty measurement; global MPI; Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)