The Human Poverty Index (HPI) was an indication of the poverty of community in a country, developed by the United Nations to complement the Human Development Index (HDI) and was first reported as part of the Human Development Report in 1997. It is developed by United Nations Development Program which also publishes indexes like HDI It was considered to better reflect the extent of deprivation in deprived countries compared to the HDI. In 2010, it was supplanted by the UN's Multidimensional Poverty Index. The HPI concentrates on the deprivation in the three essential elements of human life already reflected in the HDI: longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living. The HPI is derived separately for developing countries (HPI-1) and a group of select high-income OECD countries (HPI-2) to better reflect socio-economic differences and also the widely different measures of deprivation in the two groups.

For developing countries (HPI-1)

The Human Development Reports website summarizes this as "A composite index measuring deprivations in the three basic dimensions captured in the human development index—a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living." The formula for calculating it is: P_1: Probability at birth of not surviving to age 40 (times 100) P_2: Adult illiteracy rate P_3: Arithmetic average of 3 characteristics: \alpha: 3

For selected high-income OECD countries (HPI-2)

The Human Development Reports website summarizes this as "A composite index measuring deprivations in the four basic dimensions captured in the human development index—a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living—and also capturing social exclusion." The formula for calculating it is: P_1: Probability at birth of not surviving to age 60 (times 100) P_2: Adults lacking functional literacy skills P_3: Population below income poverty line (50% of median adjusted household disposable income) P_4: Rate of long-term unemployment (lasting 12 months or more) \alpha: 3 The last report, 2007–2008, only has a ranking for 19 of the 22 countries with the highest Human Development Index. The ranking is as follows (with the country with the lowest amount of poverty at the top): The countries ranked in the top 22 by HPI that are not on this list are Iceland, New Zealand and Liechtenstein. Not all countries are included in this ranking because data are not always available. The ranks of many countries, especially those at the bottom, could drop considerably if the list included more countries. For information about the component values for countries other than the ones on the list, see source links below. Indicators used are: