How can you tell whether or not someone is living in poverty? What makes the quality of life better for someone living on the streets of New York rather than for someone living in a dirt-floor hut in the middle of Africa? The University of Oxford recently did a study intended to answer questions just like these, utilizing determinants of poverty rarely used before. These measurements became known as the "Multidimensional Poverty Index" (MPI), and will be used by the United Nations in their next Human Development Report.

The MPI is composed of ten indicators that help determine a person's quality of life. A family is considered poor if they're deprived of over 30% of the indicators that describe a non-poverty-stricken life. Such indicators are determined by asking a new series of questions. For example, one of the questions asked was, "Does a family have a floor made from dung?" While another question posed, "Are any members of the household malnourished?"

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