Mexico Falling Behind in Latin America with a Growing Share of the Region's Poor Zachary Dyer - Tico Times
go to original June 25, 2013

poverty in mexico 20 (brando soto)

As Latin America and the Caribbean make impressive progress combating extreme poverty, Central America and Mexico are falling behind with a growing share of the region’s poor, according to a report from the World Bank last week.

“Shifting Gears to Accelerate Shared Prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean” lauded the region for reducing extreme poverty by 50 percent and growing its middle class from 1995 to 2011, but noted that at its current sluggish pace, Latin America would take until 2052 to reach the same levels of income equality as wealthy nations had in 2000.

“Since the year 2000 the poverty level has been reduced to half, and in 2011, for the very first time in the history of Latin America, middle class surpassed poverty numbers,” the report noted.

Central America and Mexico, however, have the largest number of people living in extreme poverty. According to the report, 16.4 percent of people in Mexico and Central America are extremely poor, compared to 10.6 percent in the Southern Cone, the region’s leader.

The report pointed out that half of the Latin America and the Caribbean’s 80 million people living in extreme poverty - surviving on less than $2.50 a day - are in Brazil and Mexico.

Read the rest at Tico Times

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!