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Between 2008 and 2023, multidimensional poverty in Latin America fell significantly—from 45.8% to 25.4%. This steady decline, averaging 1.4% per year, was only interrupted in 2020 due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Progress in internet access, adult education, and sanitation were key drivers of this improvement, according to the Multidimensional Poverty Index for Latin America (MPI-LA). The index was presented by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, and Michelle Muschett, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at UNDP, during the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development 2025 in Santiago, Chile.
In recent decades, there’s been growing recognition that poverty must be measured more comprehensively, incorporating multiple dimensions of well-being. Since 2010, the UNDP and Oxford’s Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) have published the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, covering 112 countries home to 6.3 billion people, of whom 1.1 billion live in multidimensional poverty. While useful for global comparisons, this index faces limitations for more localized analysis, as it requires the same types of data worldwide and indicators that capture highly diverse realities.
In Latin America 12 countries have adopted national MPIs, tailored to their specific contexts. These tools are powerful for policymaking but aren't comparable across countries. To bridge that gap, ECLAC and UNDP developed the MPI-LA, designed to reflect shared regional priorities and use data already available—such as employment statistics.
“The index we are presenting today is a key tool for governments and stakeholders to monitor the multiple dimensions of poverty, especially highlighting the deep structural inequalities that limit social and economic progress. Addressing these dimensions comprehensively is essential not only for economic and social reasons, but also to strengthen the ability of democracies to implement effective policies, meet expectations, reduce social discontent and polarization—all of which also help strengthen democracy and democratic governance in the region,” said José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, during the presentation.
“This new index is a key tool for governments and stakeholders to monitor poverty across multiple dimensions. It highlights the deep structural inequalities that limit social and economic progress. Tackling these issues is essential—not only for development—but also to strengthen democratic institutions and reduce social discontent and polarization,” said Salazar-Xirinachs.
The MPI-LA complements traditional income-based measures by incorporating four key dimensions of well-being: housing, health, education, and employment. It goes further by including indicators like job quality, access to social protection, exclusion from the workforce due to unpaid domestic work, and internet connectivity—representing a significant advance toward a more comprehensive measurement of poverty, adapted to the region’s specific realities.
“Latin America and the Caribbean face persistent structural challenges, with vulnerability to poverty being one of the most significant. This makes us especially fragile in the face of different crises, limiting our capacity to recover and make sustained progress. In a context of uncertainty, marked by rapid technological change, social fragmentation, and climate change, delaying the resolution of these challenges will only increase our vulnerability, limiting our potential for growth and productivity,” said Michelle Muschett, Regional Director for Latin America at the UNDP.
“Trusting in our region’s ability to take a significant leap in reducing poverty, the Multidimensional Poverty Index for Latin America and the Caribbean offers a tool specifically designed to reflect our realities and address poverty in a comprehensive way, beyond income shortages. This index is key for guiding public policy, allocating resources more efficiently, and promoting cooperation among our countries, contributing to the definitive closing of poverty gaps,” Muschett added.
What is Multidimensional Poverty? Poverty has traditionally been measured using a single dimension: income. The concept of multidimensional poverty expands this view by assessing a person’s situation through multiple aspects at once, such as health, education, housing quality, and employment. These dimensions can vary depending on what each society defines as "poverty." A key element of this approach is the recognition that deprivation in one dimension is not the same as experiencing multiple deprivations at the same time—the impact is significantly greater when several aspects of well-being are affected simultaneously.
Main Causes of Multidimensional Poverty
The new index shows that the main causes of multidimensional poverty in the region are related to the labor market, connectivity, and housing conditions. A full 25% of multidimensional poverty stems from poor job quality and barriers to labor participation, highlighting the need for public policies addressing informal employment and the burden of unpaid domestic work—particularly for women.
Additionally, lack of internet access and overcrowded living conditions contribute around 20% to multidimensional poverty, underscoring the importance of public connectivity initiatives and social housing policies to improve household living conditions.
Analysis from the MPI-LA also reveals that multidimensional poverty does not always align with income-based poverty. In 2023, 12.6% of the population was considered poor according to both approaches, while 22.2% experienced poverty under only one of the two methods. This finding shows that relying solely on one measurement can exclude significant segments of the population, especially in rural areas (in the case of income poverty) or urban areas (in the case of the MPI-LA).
Vulnerability by Age, Residence, Ethnicity, and Gender
Multidimensional poverty has unequal impacts based on age, place of residence, and ethnicity. In 2023, 57% of the rural population lived in multidimensional poverty compared to 15.5% in urban areas. Children are the most affected group, with 31% living in multidimensional poverty, followed by older adults (21%) and adults between 18 and 59 years old (19%). Additionally, Indigenous populations face disproportionate levels of multidimensional poverty, with an incidence of 50.6% compared to 18.5% among non-Indigenous populations.
A major innovation of this index is that it presents individual-level analysis—not just household-level—for key aspects. The gender analysis, for example, conducted for people aged 20 to 59, reveals major inequalities in women's access to employment and economic autonomy. Women face significant barriers to entering the labor market, which results in a high concentration in low-quality jobs and limited economic autonomy. These inequalities are closely tied to the burden of unpaid domestic and caregiving work.
Challenges in Data Availability and Quality
The release of this index highlights the lack of data in the region. As shown in the report, the analysis does not include all countries in the region due to the absence of comparable data in several nations. Continuous and consistent data collection is crucial.
The MPI-LA is based on data from national household surveys, which have improved in recent years. However, it is still necessary to expand data collection in key well-being areas such as health, education, food insecurity, domestic violence, environmental quality, and public safety to obtain a more accurate poverty measurement.
Only by strengthening statistical infrastructure and collecting more detailed data will it be possible to achieve a more complete and precise measurement of poverty in the region—enabling cross-country comparisons and facilitating the design of public policies aimed at reducing it.
Read the full report and summary.
