Number of Poor in Mexico Increased by 9 Million in Two Years Dora Villanueva - La Jornada
go to original April 26, 2022

A jobless person asks for support on the streets of Mexico City. (Marco Pelaez/La Jornada)

In the past two years, the number of people in poverty increased by 9 million and 6.5 million were added to those who cannot purchase a basic food basket with their income. The rise occurred especially in the first months of confinement due to the pandemic, during April and May and, although this trend had partially reversed by the end of 2020, "the crisis not only increased poverty, but also deepened it," documents the University Program for Development Studies (PUED).

Throughout the country, type of locality and activity, increases in poverty were recorded. The crisis contains accents and nuances, there was a greater loss of income in households with workers dedicated to the service sector, in those inhabited by people under 18 years of age and in those located in cities. The general reality is that "the poor are now poorer than in 2018," said the group of academics belonging to UNAM.

At least one in five people was in extreme poverty and more than half in general income poverty at the end of last year, shows the study The pandemic and poverty in Mexico in 2020 , carried out by researchers Héctor Nájera and Curtis Huffman . The occupation and employment surveys and the most recent household income and expenditure surveys were taken as a basis, all carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).

To calculate these increases in income vulnerability, which fell to 9 percent with the health crisis, two scenarios were used, one based on general inflation and the other based on the food basket recorded by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy; This last measurement shows that before the pandemic there had already been a deterioration in the levels of extreme poverty, given the speed at which food has become more expensive compared to other basic goods.

In the scenario that considers general inflation, it is observed that extreme poverty was at 16.8 percent in 2018 - and at the same level prior to the confinements in Mexico - it reached 22.6 percent in May and then fell to 21.5 percent in the last quarter of 2020.

Extreme poverty implies that the income is so low that, even if it were devoted entirely to the purchase of food, it is not enough to guarantee people's health; This stands out because when taking the Coneval food basket as a basis, it is observed that 16.8 percent of the population was in this circumstance two years ago, in February 2020 it had already increased to 20 percent and at the end of last year it stood at 27.2 percent, almost one in three inhabitants in Mexico.

In turn, general poverty – measured by income with inflation – went from 48.8 percent where it was more than two years ago to 55.7 percent at the end of 2020; but when taking as a parameter only the increase in basic food prices, it jumped from 48.8 percent to 64.7 percent, that is to say that six out of 10 Mexicans (even a little more) cannot cover some of their basic needs, such as health, education, food, housing.

With the pandemic, these indicators saw a greater increase in households with a population under 18 years of age and in states with a larger population or where economic activity is based on services; Baja California, Mexico City, the state of Mexico and Quintana Roo stand out, with an increase of around 10 percentage points.

See the original at La Jornada

This article was translated from Spanish using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.

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