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ScholarWorks > HHS > Social Work > JSSW > Vol. 53 > Iss. 1 (2026)

 

Keywords

Multidimensional poverty, deprivation, social deprivation, capabilities, Iran

Abstract

Poverty is not only about lack of income. It is a multidimensional condition that also includes social exclusion, which has often been ignored in poverty studies. This research started from the idea that in Iran, and in many other developing countries, the social side of poverty is still not well measured. Most existing indices look only at health, education, and basic needs, but they do not capture how social deprivation affects people’s lives. Our study tries to fill this gap by building a new multidimensional poverty index that also includes social indicators. We collected data from 1,550 individuals in Qom, Iran, in 2022 through door-to-door interviews, and we used the Alkire and Foster method to measure poverty. The results show that more than half of households (52.5%) are multidimensionally poor, while 23.6% face adjusted multidimensional poverty. Economic, capability, and social deprivation rates were about 51.4%, 44.0%, and 60.5% respectively. The regression analysis explained nearly one-third of the variation in poverty (Nagelkerke R² = 0.31). Important predictors were the employment status of the household head, home ownership, the presence of chronic illness in the family, and the education level of the household head. The findings show that adding social deprivation to poverty measures sharply increases its observed extent and intensity, suggesting that current policies may underestimate real needs. This calls for poverty strategies that also target social barriers. Female-headed households remain more at risk, though social networks can partly offset disadvantages. The approach can be applied in other developing contexts to guide more comprehensive policies.

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