A new report from the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) reveals that 70 percent of children under the age of 18 are living in poverty in Afghanistan, significantly higher than the 57.8 percent rate for adults.
The report, jointly published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), highlights Afghanistan’s deep poverty crisis, noting that while children account for half of the world’s poor, in Afghanistan the proportion is even more striking at 58.9 percent.
“In raw numbers, Afghanistan has about 5 million more poor children than adults—15.5 million poor children compared to 10.8 million poor adults,” the MPI report states. It also underscores that deprivation in school attendance and nutrition are key contributors to poverty, with 52.3 percent of Afghans living in households where at least one child is not attending school and 44.2 percent in households with an undernourished child under the age of five.
The 2024 MPI report provides a comprehensive analysis of multidimensional poverty across 112 countries, covering 6.3 billion people. It includes new data from 20 countries and closely examines the link between poverty and conflict, noting that poverty reduction is slowest in countries experiencing war and instability.
Afghanistan, singled out as a case study, saw 5.3 million more people fall into multidimensional poverty between 2015 and 2023, with nearly two-thirds of the population—64.9 percent—living in poverty by 2022/2023.
Globally, the report estimates that 1.1 billion people live in acute poverty, with 40 percent residing in conflict-affected countries. “Conflicts have intensified and multiplied in recent years, displacing millions and causing widespread disruption to lives and livelihoods,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator. “Nearly half a billion people in conflict settings are living in multidimensional poverty, and we must accelerate our efforts to break this cycle of crisis and poverty.”
