Nearly 80% of the world’s 1.1 billion multidimensionally poor people — around 887 million individuals — live in subnational regions exposed to at least one climate hazard, including extreme heat, drought, flooding, or unsafe air pollution.1 More than half (651 million people) face multiple climate hazards simultaneously.
These stark findings come from the 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), a new report by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report Office, that reveals how poverty and climate change are compounding challenges. The evidence underscores an unavoidable truth: ending poverty and addressing climate change are inseparable goals that must be tackled together, at the same time and in the same places.
When it comes to climate hazards, lower-middle-income countries bear the heaviest burden
The overlap between poverty and climate hazards is highest in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), where rapid structural change intersects with large pockets of deprivation. In LMICs, 548 million poor people live in regions exposed to at least one climate hazard, and 470 million face two or more simultaneously. Air pollution and extreme heat are the most widespread, each affecting more than 70% of poor people in LMICs.
The contrast between LMICs and low-income countries (LICs) is revealing. While 61% of poor people in LICs live in regions experiencing at least one climate hazard, the share in LMICs is 88%. Countries that experience rapid economic growth are also likely to be hotspots where climate hazards and poverty converge. As countries develop, it’s plausible that poor people are exposed to environmental hazards through factors such as rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, and a lack of adaptive infrastructure. This suggests the importance of infrastructure and resilience measures that can protect vulnerability as economies grow.
Lower-middle-income countries have the largest number of poor people exposed to one or more climate hazards
Source: 2025 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)
Nowhere is this situation more obvious than in South Asia, which has experienced rapid poverty reduction alongside widespread environmental hazards. According to the 2025 MPI report, India reduced multidimensional poverty from 55% to 16% between 2005/2006 and 2019/2021, lifting 414 million people out of poverty. Bangladesh and Nepal saw similar dramatic reductions over the past decade.
Yet, these gains unfolded alongside severe climate hazard exposure. The report highlights that 99% of poor people in South Asia — some 380 million people — live in areas facing at least one climate hazard. Strikingly, 91% of poor people are in regions exposed to multiple hazards. This overlap, which is higher than in any other world region, underscores the tension between economic progress and environmental challenges.
Exposure to future climate hazards is unequal between countries
Future climate hazards are also unequally distributed. Projections show that countries with the highest multidimensional poverty rates will face the steepest increase in extreme heat days under every emissions scenario. Under a high-emissions pathway, countries with the highest poverty levels will experience 37 additional extreme heat days per year by mid-century and 92 additional days by the end of the century, compared with 24 and 62 days in the least poor countries.
This widening gap illustrates how existing inequalities can compound. Those with the least access to climate-resilient resources, such as reliable healthcare and safe labour conditions, face the greatest exposure to future heat rises. Early investment in resources to protect these communities, such as public health and labour protections, is essential to prevent inequalities from widening.
What can policy makers do?
The evidence is unambiguous: the same regions that have raised millions out of poverty are also those most exposed to heat, floods, droughts, and pollution.
Targeted action should focus on areas where poverty and climate hazards overlap most sharply. Policy makers should also account for the future trajectories of climate hazards, since investments in the poorest and most exposed regions will yield compounding benefits over time. These are the places where adaptation, social protection, and infrastructure investment can deliver the highest returns.
Poverty reduction and climate resilience can no longer be pursued separately. Lasting progress depends on protecting today’s gains while preparing for tomorrow’s risks.
1. The four climate hazards are defined using global datasets: regions experience high heat when they record 30 or more days a year equal to or above 35°C; drought captures dryness relative to historical averages; floods include events causing at least 10 deaths, affecting over 100 people, or prompting an international appeal; and air pollution reflects exposure to unsafe annual mean concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM₂.₅) above 35 µg/m³.
