79,000 Jamaicans still living in multidimensional poverty

Nearly 79,000 Jamaicans, or 2.8 per cent of the population, remain trapped in multidimensional poverty, according to the newly released 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

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The report, titled Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazard, finds that while Jamaica’s monetary poverty rate dropped to a record low of 8.2 per cent in 2023, down from 16.7 per cent in 2021, thousands continue to face overlapping deprivations in health, education, and living standards.

Multidimensional poverty goes beyond income levels, capturing broader aspects of deprivation that affect well-being. It examines access to nutrition, healthcare, education, housing, sanitation, electricity, and clean cooking fuel — offering a fuller picture of how poverty shapes daily life.

According to the 2025 MPI, 52.2 per cent of multidimensionally poor Jamaicans are deprived in health, 20.9 per cent in education, and 26.9 per cent in standard of living. The average intensity of deprivation — the degree to which people experience overlapping hardships — stands at 38.9 per cent, while the country’s overall MPI value is 0.011.

In comparison, the Dominican Republic recorded an MPI value of 0.009, and Trinidad and Tobago just 0.002, placing Jamaica slightly behind its regional peers.

The findings also reveal that 142,000 Jamaicans — roughly five per cent of the population — are considered vulnerable to multidimensional poverty, meaning a small shock could push them into deprivation. Another 0.2 per cent of Jamaicans live in severe multidimensional poverty.

The report notes that Jamaica’s incidence of multidimensional poverty (2.8 per cent) is 1.4 percentage points higher than its monetary poverty rate (1.4 per cent), showing that “individuals living above the monetary poverty line may still suffer deprivations in health, education and/or standard of living.”

Despite those challenges, Jamaica fares better than the Latin America and Caribbean average, where 5.6 per cent of people live in multidimensional poverty, with an average deprivation intensity of 42.4 per cent.

Global picture: Poverty and climate hazards intertwined

This year’s global MPI update includes data from 109 countries and 1,359 regions, covering 6.3 billion people worldwide. It finds that 1.1 billion people — more than one in six globally — live in acute multidimensional poverty, and over half are children.

Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia together account for 83.2 per cent of the world’s multidimensionally poor, with Sub-Saharan Africa alone home to 565 million people living in acute poverty. The report highlights that 83.5 per cent of the multidimensionally poor live in rural areas, even though these areas represent just over half of the global population.

At the other end of the scale, countries like Serbia (0.1 per cent), Armenia (0.2 per cent), and Azerbaijan (0.2 per cent) have nearly eliminated acute multidimensional poverty, while Chad (84.2 per cent), the Central African Republic (80.4 per cent), and Niger (79.9 per cent) have the highest poverty rates.

The report also integrates climate hazard data for the first time, revealing that nearly eight in ten of those living in multidimensional poverty — 887 million people — are directly exposed to extreme heat, drought, flooding, or air pollution. Of those, 651 million face two or more climate hazards, while 309 million experience three or four simultaneously.

“The findings show that poverty is not just a standalone socio-economic issue, but one deeply interlinked with planetary pressures and instability,” the report concludes.