Nepal Cuts Multidimensional Poverty by Half

Multidimensional poverty measures several serious disadvantages at once, rather than looking only at money. Nepal’s decline from 30.1% to 13.9% means the share of people facing overlapping deprivations in health, education, and living standards fell by more than half over the period.

The change represents a broad improvement in people’s daily conditions. In 2014, 30.1% of Nepal’s population was identified as multidimensionally poor. By 2024/25, that proportion had fallen to 13.9%, according to the latest Global MPI from UNDP and OPHI.

The improvement was sustained across four consecutive periods over 10.5 years. Recent progress continued too: poverty fell from 16.4% in 2022 to 13.9% in 2024/25. The figures suggest Nepal is reaching fewer people through multiple forms of deprivation, supporting progress towards the SDGs.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index, or MPI, is a measure of poverty across several parts of life. In this article, those parts are health, education, and living standards. It matters because poverty can involve several connected disadvantages, not simply having income below a particular amount.

An income-only measure asks whether people have enough money. The MPI instead looks at whether people experience deprivations across these wider areas, and whether those disadvantages overlap. Nepal’s 2024/25 MPI value was 0.056, while 13.9% of people were classified as multidimensionally poor.

This broader view helps show changes that income figures alone might miss. Nepal’s result captures fewer people facing combined disadvantages over time. The article does not provide the exact indicator weights or poverty cutoff, but it clearly links the index to overlapping deprivations in health, education, and living standards.

Nepal’s improvement was large by every measure reported. Its MPI value declined from 0.133 in 2014 to 0.056 in 2024/25, a reduction of nearly 58%. The incidence of multidimensional poverty also fell by 16.2 percentage points, from 30.1% to 13.9%.

The estimated number of people affected fell from 8.32 million to 4.11 million. That is a decrease of about 4.21 million people living in multidimensional poverty. The figures therefore show both a lower rate and a smaller estimated population experiencing overlapping deprivations.

The improvement continued recently. Between 2022 and 2024/25, the poverty proportion fell from 16.4% to 13.9%, while the MPI value decreased from 0.068 to 0.056. Together, these measures show substantial progress rather than movement in only one statistic.

A lower multidimensional poverty rate means fewer people face overlapping disadvantages in the areas that shape basic wellbeing. In Nepal, the share experiencing combined deprivations in health, education, and living standards fell from 30.1% to 13.9% between 2014 and 2024/25.

For example, a person counted as multidimensionally poor would be experiencing disadvantages across the index’s covered areas. By 2024/25, fewer people were counted in that combined condition. The MPI value also fell from 0.133 to 0.056, reinforcing the evidence of reduced deprivation.

The result does not show that every person gained equally, or identify which individual service improved most. It does show a major population-level change. Continued progress could mean fewer people face several basic disadvantages at the same time, but 13.9% still remained multidimensionally poor in 2024/25.

Nepal’s progress is notable because it achieved a halving of its MPI value in fewer than 15 years. The Global MPI 2026 identifies Nepal among 33 countries reaching that milestone. This places its reduction within an international comparison, rather than treating it as an isolated national change.

Nepal’s MPI value fell nearly 58%, from 0.133 in 2014 to 0.056 in 2024/25. The proportion of multidimensionally poor people also fell from 30.1% to 13.9%. These results show progress across both the index value and the population affected.

The achievement matters for the Sustainable Development Goals because the report presents multidimensional poverty reduction as progress towards them. Nepal also recorded a sustained decline across four consecutive periods over 10.5 years. That consistency makes the country’s progress especially significant among the countries highlighted.

One survey can show an important change, but it may not establish whether that change lasted. Results can differ between periods, so a single improvement offers limited evidence about a long-term trend. Repeated declines provide a stronger picture of continuing progress.

Nepal recorded a sustained decline in multidimensional poverty across four consecutive periods spanning 10.5 years. During the wider period, the poverty rate fell from 30.1% in 2014 to 13.9% in 2024/25, while the MPI value fell from 0.133 to 0.056.

The pattern also continued in the latest comparison. Between 2022 and 2024/25, the proportion of poor people dropped from 16.4% to 13.9%, and the MPI value declined from 0.068 to 0.056. This sequence supports a continuing trend, not just one favorable survey result.

The MPI first considers several areas of life rather than income alone. In Nepal’s case, the areas named are health, education, and living standards. A person is relevant to the measure when disadvantages overlap across these areas, because combined hardship is the central idea.

The index then brings those deprivations together into an overall measure. The article reports both the proportion of people identified as multidimensionally poor and Nepal’s MPI value. For example, in 2024/25, the rate was 13.9% and the MPI value was 0.056.

The source does not explain the exact indicators, weights, or cutoff used in the calculation. Therefore, it supports the broad mechanism but not a detailed classification formula. Its key point is that overlapping disadvantages are combined to assess multidimensional poverty and track change over time.