Rethinking Dimensions: The South African Multidimensional Poverty Index Lungile Ntsalaze 1 • Sylvanus Ikhide 2 Accepted: 14 October 2016 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016 Abstract The growth of literature on multidimensional poverty measures generates an uncertainty about which dimensions best capture the extent of poverty. This paper applies multiple correspondence analysis in the context of multidimensional poverty in South Africa to identify statistically valid additional dimensions using National Income Dynamics Study data of 2012. The results confirm the argument that economic status (lack of employment) and financial commitment (over-indebtedness) can be regarded as important dimensions, as their occurrence constrains households from participating in the activities essential in modern society. It is therefore proposed that, in addition to health, education, and living standard dimensions, both economic status and financial commitments should be included in the framework for the South African multidimensional poverty analysis. A central contribution of this work is a proposal of a hybrid multidimensional measure which recommends a combination of both non-monetary and monetary indicators, in particular over-indebtedness. Keywords Composite Poverty Index Á Household over-indebtedness Á Multidimensional poverty Á Multiple correspondence analysis Á Unemployment 1 Introduction In spite of the widespread research on poverty and its significance, there is little consensus about the best way to measure it. Poverty measures focused on income and expenditure are widely recognised as not fully taking into account the multiple aspects and sensitivity of & Lungile Ntsalaze ntsall@unisa.ac.za Sylvanus Ikhide Sylvanus.Ikhide@usb.ac.za 1 Department of Financial Intelligence, University of South Africa, P.O. Box 392, Pretoria 0003, South Africa 2 Department of Development Finance, University of Stellenbosch Business School, P.O. Box 610, Bellville 7535, South Africa 123 Soc Indic Res DOI 10.1007/s11205-016-1473-4