Human Poverty Index

From ICT4D Wiki

Created in 1997, the HPI is a composite index that aims itself as an opposite to the Human Development Index, "in an attempt to bring together in a composite index the different features of deprivation in the quality of life to arrive at an aggregate judgment on the extent of poverty in a community".


  • The first deprivation relates to survival: the likeliness of death at a relatively early age and is represented by the probability of not surviving to ages 40 and 60 respectively for the HPI-1 and HPI-2.
  • The second dimension relates to knowledge: being excluded from the world of reading and communication and is measured by the percentage of adults who are illiterate.
  • The third aspect relates to a decent standard of living, in particular, overall economic provisioning.

For the HPI-1, it is measured by the unweighted average of the percentage of the population without access to safe water and the percentage of underweight children for their age. For the HPI-2, the third dimension is measured by the percentage of the population below the income poverty line (50% of median household disposable income).

In addition to the three indicators mentioned above, the HPI-2 also includes social exclusion, which is The fourth dimension of the HPI-2 . It is represented by the rate of long term unemployment.


It is calculated by the UNDP and published in their Human Development Report.


Website: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/indices/hpi/