2 Severity and Scale: Geographic Distribution of Multidimensional Poverty Key Messages 01 02 03 04 Poverty in Myanmar is widespread and deep, with vulnerability extending well beyond the poor: 32.6 percent of the population (approximately 17.9 million people) is multidimensionally poor, and a further 19.5 million are vulnerable, meaning two-thirds of the population are either poor or at risk of falling into poverty. Rural areas carry a disproportionate share of the poverty burden, but urban vulnerability is underestimated by averages: Nearly four in five MPI-poor people live outside cities, and rural headcount (36.7%) is near double the urban rate (21.7%). Yet Yangon alone hosts 1.73 million MPI-poor people, concentrated in peri-urban areas that urban averages mask. Conflict-affected states face poverty so severe that poor households are deprived in roughly half of all indicators simultaneously: In Rakhine and Kayah, more than two in three people are multidimensionally poor and intensity exceeds 48 percent, a combination that signals not just widespread poverty but acute, overlapping deprivation requiring area-based responses. Severity and scale point in different directions, and both matter for programming: The states with the most MPI-poor people in absolute terms (Ayeyarwady, Sagaing, Mandalay and Shan together account for over half the national count) record only moderate MPI scores, while the most severely deprived states have smaller populations. Effective responses require distinguishing between where poverty is deepest and where it is most numerous. L AYE R S O F DE P R I VAT I O N : M u l t i di m en si on a l Pov er t y i n M y anmar 9