Pakistan Poverty Rate Tops India And Bangladesh In New Index

Pakistan is facing a serious development warning after new multidimensional poverty figures showed that more than one-third of the country’s population is living with overlapping hardships in health, education and living standards.

The latest global poverty update placed Pakistan’s multidimensional poverty rate at 38.3 percent, significantly higher than India’s 16.4 percent and Bangladesh’s 14.9 percent. The comparison is not fully same-year because the figures are based on household surveys conducted in different periods, but the gap still points to a major structural challenge for Pakistan.

The index goes beyond income and looks at whether households face multiple forms of deprivation at the same time. These include nutrition, child mortality, schooling, attendance, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing quality and ownership of basic household assets. A person is counted as multidimensionally poor when deprivation crosses the index threshold across these indicators.

For Pakistan, the depth of deprivation is also high. Among people classified as multidimensionally poor, the average intensity of deprivation was reported at 51.7 percent. Another 12.9 percent of the population was considered vulnerable, meaning a large number of families remain close to falling into deeper hardship if economic or social conditions worsen.

The global update also showed a troubling wider trend. The number of people living in multidimensional poverty has risen to about 1.2 billion, marking the first increase since the index was introduced in 2010. Children make up more than half of those affected, while rural communities account for the overwhelming majority of the poor.

South Asia remains one of the major regions affected by layered deprivation. The region carries a large share of global shortfalls in nutrition, housing and years of schooling. Millions of poor households also include school-aged children who are not attending school, underlining how poverty can repeat across generations when basic services do not reach families consistently.

For Pakistan, the findings should sharpen attention on targeted social protection, school retention, health access, clean water, sanitation and housing quality. The figures suggest that short-term relief alone will not be enough. Reducing poverty will require coordinated action across provinces, better public service delivery and policies that directly address the daily conditions keeping families trapped in deprivation.

The next policy test will be whether federal and provincial authorities use the new data to identify the worst-hit areas and move resources toward measurable outcomes. Without stronger execution, Pakistan risks allowing poverty to remain not just an income problem but a wider barrier to education, health, productivity and national development.