Oxford University’s study uses a measure called the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which includes indicators such as years of schooling, water availability, nutrition and child mortality.

It measures the intensity of different deprivations that poor people face including nutrition, education and sanitation and not just income.

The findings showed poverty levels had significantly dropped in 18 out of 22 countries.Bangaldesh, Rwanda and Nepal were the top performing countries, with the largest reductions in absolute poverty.

The study found that in 2013 a total of 1.6 billion people are living in "multidimensional" poverty. The poorest one billion live in 100 countries. Most of the bottom billion live in South Asia, with India home to 40%, followed by sub-Saharan Africa with 33%. The report also found that 9.5% of the bottom billion poor people lived in developed, upper middle-income countries.