The percentage of people in a situation of multidimensional poverty in Colombia (that which represents simultaneous deprivations in education, health, housing, employment, and basic services that affect a household, beyond the simple lack of income) was 9.9% in the year 2025. That percentage, revealed by DANE, represents a drop of 1.6% in relation to the 11.5% reported in the year 2024.
One of the data points that draws the most attention is that, for the first time, a record of fewer than 6 million people in a situation of multidimensional poverty is reached, since 5.2 million were counted in this situation. According to the figures offered by DANE, compared to 2024, 793,000 people left the condition of poverty.
Another thing that the historical series presented by this survey shows is that the incidence of multidimensional poverty at the national level since 2010 has had a downward trend. In 2020, the incidence was 18.1%, being the only year that reported an increase since 2018, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the Amazonia-Orinoquia region was where people considered multidimensionally poor have the most deprivations on average. That is to say that in that region, the low-income people are deprived in 41.3% of the indicators (conditions of childhood and youth, work, health, housing, and public services). In contrast, Bogota was where low-income people have the fewest deprivations on average, with 37.7% of the indicators, reducing 0.9 percentage points with respect to 2024.
A household is considered multidimensionally poor if it is deprived of at least 33.3% of those indicators.
There were no statistically significant increases
In view of this survey result, the director of DANE, Piedad Urdinola, said that the idea of redesigning it is going to be reviewed with the committee of experts because it has begun to stagnate. “We are reviewing a redesign of this index because we already see that several of those dimensions it has are beginning to stagnate and to see levels that are very low; in some geographic domains, we no longer even have movements.”
In the large domains, the decrease in the incidence of multidimensional poverty in the country’s urban centers was 1.5 percentage points, going from 7.8% in 2024 to 6.3% in 2025, while in populated centers and dispersed rural areas, the decrease was 1.9 percentage points (from 22.4% in 2025 compared to 24.3% in 2024).
This report also highlights that of the 15 indicators that make up the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), at the national level, no statistically significant increases were observed between 2024 and 2025. But statistically significant decreases were observed: the indicators of school lag and low educational attainment recorded the largest reductions between 2024 and 2025.
According to DANE, deprivations in education contributed 35.9% to the total poverty recorded in 2025. In education, the index measures shortcomings in areas such as illiteracy and low educational attainment. The second dimension that most explained multidimensional poverty was working conditions (29.6%), followed by housing conditions with 14.1%, childhood and youth conditions with 12.5%, and access to health with 7.9%.