additional deprivations accumulate. Since intensity barely varies across states/regions (Section 5.2), most poor households, including those in high-MPI states/regions, sit at broadly similar points along this depth gradient; what differs by state/region is not how deep poverty runs, but how widespread the underlying living-standards deficit is to begin with. This pattern reveals the sequence in which deprivations accumulate. Living standards deficits are nearly universal among MPI-poor households, affecting even those with minimal poverty. As deprivation deepens and households experience multiple concurrent deprivations, education deficits become increasingly prominent, suggesting that education-related deprivations intensify only when households are already suffering from other constraints. The deepest deprivation is characterized not by dominance of any single dimension, but by the accumulation of disadvantage across all three dimensions, with education carrying as much weight as living standards. Household characteristics shift where households sit along this gradient without changing the gradient itself. Income quintile decomposition illustrates the distinction clearly. MPI scores fall substantially across the quintiles, from 0.255 in Q1 to 0.067 in Q5, yet the dimensional composition remains broadly stable across all five quintiles. Households at the bottom of the income distribution and households at the top exhibit similar shares of education, health and living standards deprivation, even as the overall depth of their poverty differs by nearly fourfold. Income shifts where households sit along the deprivation distribution; it does not shift what their deprivation is made of. The same logic applies to employment type, education of head, migration status and shock exposure: these characteristics shift the depth of poverty, but the dimensional gradient they sit on is determined by deprivation depth, not by the characteristic itself. Figure 13 MPI score and dimensional composition (by income quintile) Figure 13. MPI score and dimensional composition by income quintile MPI is lower in higher-income quintiles, while dimensional composition remains broadly stable Education MPI score Income Q1 0.255 0.183 Income Q2 0.138 Income Q3 Income Q4 Income Q5 Living standard 0.102 0.067 20% 39% 41% 21% 39% 40% 17% 39% 44% 20% 39% 41% 17% 42% 41% National: 0.150 Source: PPS 2025 (UNDP) 40 Health Contribution to MPI (%) LAYERS OF DEP RIVATION : Mu ltid im e n s io n a l Pov er t y i n M y a n m a r