5 Beyond Headcount: What the Composition of Deprivation Reveals Key Messages 01 02 03 04 36 Health and living standards drive the national deprivation picture: Nationally, health (39.3%) and living standards (41.3%) together account for over 80 percent of the MPI score, with education contributing 19.4 percent. The urban–rural gap is a gap in the level of poverty, not its type: the compositional shares are nearly identical across both areas. Dimensional composition varies by context, not poverty level alone: In states/regions where survival-related deprivations dominate (Rakhine, Kayah, Chin, Kachin and Ayeyarwady), health and living standards compress education's share. In states/regions where education's share is comparatively higher (Sagaing, Mon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw), the transition from survival deprivations to human-capital constraints has direct implications for which interventions carry the most leverage. The poorest households face a structural deprivation trap that income gains alone cannot dislodge: The two lowest income quintiles display nearly identical dimensional structures dominated by health and living standards. Income shifts the level of poverty across the distribution without shifting its dimensional structure, because housing, sanitation and health access deficits are not directly resolved through marginal income increases. Dimensional composition is the diagnostic that headcount alone cannot provide: Mon and Kayin record nearly identical MPI scores but face different binding constraints, Kayin's higher health share points to healthcare access, Mon's higher living-standards share points to infrastructure first. More broadly, where survival-related deprivations dominate, service restoration is the primary lever; where human-capital constraints dominate, education investment carries greater leverage; and where states and regions fall between these two patterns, livelihood restoration and economic resilience carry particular leverage, since rising incomes reduce the depth of deprivation even where they do not change its underlying composition. 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