Comunicaciones en Estad´ ıstica August 2016, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 187–210 Multivariate poverty index based on the Third National Household Budget Survey 2004-2005 1 ´ Indice de pobreza multivariante a trav´ es de la III Encuesta Nacional de Presupuestos Famililares 2004-2005 Marianela Luzardo a marianela.luzardo@upb.edu.co V´ ıctorM´arquez b chino.marquez@gmail.com Herly Segovia c hjeanellasg@hotmail.com Kelly Rangel d kellyrangel07@hotmail.com Abstract This study proposes the design of a poverty index using a multivariate approach to create an alternative indicator that combines the bene?ts of the already existing indexes. The construction of such index is based on the data supplied by the Third National Survey of Family Budgets (NFPS) 2004-2005 that contains information on socioeconomic variables of Venezuelan households. We defined eight (8) dimen- sions with characteristics of households and from there we created an index, which summarizes the information of the different dimensions for measuring poverty. Keywords : poverty rate, national survey of family budgets, principal component analysis, multiple correspondence analysis. Resumen El presente estudio propone dise˜ nar un ´ ındice de pobreza usando un enfoque mul- tivariante, para crear un indicador alternativo que conjugue las bondades de los ´ ındices existentes. La construcci´ on de dicho ´ ındice se bas´ o en los datos suministra- dos por la III Encuesta Nacional de Presupuestos Familiares(ENPF) 2004-2005, donde hay informaci´ on concerniente a las variables socioecon´ omicas de los hogares venezolanos. Se definieron ocho (8) dimensiones con caracter´ ısticas pertinentes al 1 Luzardo, M., M´arquez, V., Segovia, H., Rangel. K. Multivariate poverty index based on the Third National Household Budget Survey 2004-2005. Comunicaciones en Estad´ ıstica, 9(2), 187-210. a Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Bucaramanga, Colombia b Escuela Superior Polit´ ecnica de Chimborazo, R´ ıobamba, Ecuador c Universidad de Los Andes, M´ erida, Venezuela d Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Bucarmanga, Colombia 187