Drawing on rich datasets from national household surveys (DHS and MICS), the 2016 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) covers 46 countries in Africa, which are home to just over 1 billion people. Of these, 54% of the population, 544 million people, are multidimensionally poor.

The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an index of acute multidimensional poverty that covers over 100 developing countries. It assesses the nature and intensity of poverty, by directly measuring the overlapping deprivations poor people experience at once, then building up from this information.