By: Staff Writer
May 8, 2026
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said in their “Multidimensional poverty index for Latin America” that multidimensional poverty is dropping in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region.
The report noted: “Multidimensional poverty is declining in all Latin American countries for which several measurements are available for 2008–2022, a trend that is corroborated by both the adjusted and unadjusted incidence measures.
“In 2008–2022, the incidence of multidimensional poverty was much higher in rural areas than in urban ones. Although incidence declined significantly in both areas, the process was relatively more pronounced in the former, with reductions of averaging 1.6 percentage points per year in rural areas compared to 1.3 percentage points per year in urban zones.
“The intensity of multidimensional poverty was also greater in rural areas than in urban ones during that period and, as in the case of incidence, it declined more sharply in the former. Thus, in absolute terms, the intensity-adjusted incidence declined by more in rural areas than in urban zones between 2008 and 2022.”
Multidimensional poverty is a comprehensive approach to measuring poverty that goes beyond income to include overlapping deprivations in health, education, and standard of living. As of late 2025, 1.1 billion people live in acute multidimensional poverty, with over half being children, commonly lacking clean water, sanitation, electricity, or education.
Unlike monetary poverty, which only looks at income, multidimensional poverty captures the lived experience of poverty, including poor health, lack of education, inadequate living standards, and environmental risks.
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), developed by UNDP and OPHI, tracks 10 indicators across three dimensions: Health (nutrition, child mortality), Education (years of schooling, attendance), and Living Standards (cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets).
The report also said: “The incidence of multidimensional poverty in rural areas decreased by most in the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Chile and Panama, falling by 2.9, 2.8, 2.3 and 2.3 percentage points per year, respectively. In urban areas, the steepest reductions occurred in the Dominican Republic, Paraguay and the Plurinational State of Bolivia, where incidence retreated at an average rate of 1.9 percentage points per year. The countries where the incidence of rural multidimensional poverty diminished the least between 2008 and 2022 were El Salvador, Honduras and the Plurinational State of Bolivia. In the case of urban poverty, the countries in which incidence declined the least in absolute terms were Chile, Costa Rica, Panama and Uruguay, but the baseline incidence of urban poverty in those countries (around 2008) was relatively low by regional standard.”
Although multidimensional poverty declined in rural areas, its incidence in those areas remained disproportionately high around 2022. In nine out of 14 countries, rural multidimensional poverty was 50 percent or even higher in that year, with the highest rates recorded in El Salvador, Honduras, Peru and the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
In contrast, urban multidimensional poverty was below 25 percent in seven countries and no more than 10 percent in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay. Consequently, there were considerable disparities in the incidence of poverty by area: in nine out of 14 countries, the incidence of rural poverty exceeded the urban rate by 30 percentage points, with the greatest differences recorded in Peru, Colombia, the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Paraguay, in that order.