This paper investigates whether monetary and nonmonetary indicators tell the same story about chronic poverty using a unique panel data from Vietnam in the 1990s. Defining chronic poverty as occurring when an individual is monetarily poor, stunted, malnourished or out of school in both waves of the panel, the overlap and correlation between subgroups of the chronically poor are shown to be modest. Some, but not all, nonmonetary indicators are more persistent and complement monetary indicators of chronic poverty. Taking account of the multiple dimensions of chronic poverty cannot be a simple additive exercise. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd.