The average for 2020 based on 10 countries was 30.53 percent. The highest value was in Mexico: 43.9 percent and the lowest value was in Chile: 10.8 percent. The indicator is available from 2000 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Honduras was the country in Latin America with the highest share of population living on less than 3.20 U.S. dollars per day. The Central American nation had 26.4 percent of its population living on less than 3.20 U.S. dollars a day, while Colombia came second highest with 14 percent. On the other hand, Uruguay had only 0.8 percent of poverty headcount ratio, featured as the lowest share in the region.

In 2023, all selected Latin American countries registered a higher poverty rate for women than for men. Colombia ranked among the highest poverty rates both for males and females only behind Honduras.

As of 2023, the region's average share of the indigenous population living under the poverty line was 42.3 percent. The most recent data for Colombia positions the country with 63.5 percent of the population, the highest in Latin America.

Among selected Latin American countries, Colombia had the highest share of indigenous population with an average per capita income below the extreme poverty line, at 46.8 percent. Ecuador followed second, with 28.5 percent of indigenous people living in extreme poverty. Those two countries also had the highest share of indigenous people living in poverty.

The average for 2021 based on 12 countries was 2.5 percent. The highest value was in Colombia: 7.3 percent and the lowest value was in Uruguay: 0.1 percent. The indicator is available from 1963 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In the majority of the analyzed countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the share of the population living in extreme poverty was expected to grow in 2022 compared to 2021. Colombia presented the most adverse situation, as extreme poverty in the country was expected to increase by 2.5 percentage points. On the flip side, it was forecasted that exreme poverty would decline in four countries: Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Panama and Bolivia.

Despite a decline in both monetary and multidimensional poverty rates since 2000, Haiti remains among the poorest and most unequal countries in Latin America. Two years after the 2010 earthquake, poverty was still high, particularly in rural areas. This report establishes that in 2012 more than one in two Haitians was poor, living on less than $ 2.41 a day, and one person in four was living below the national extreme poverty line of $1.23 a day. Extreme poverty declined from 31 to 24 percent between 2000 and 2012, and there have been some gains in access to education and sanitation, although access to basic services is generally low and is characterized by important inequalities. Urban areas have fared relatively better than rural areas, reflecting more nonagricultural employment opportunities, larger private transfers, more access to critical goods, and services and narrowing inequality compared to rural areas. Continued advances in reducing both extreme and moderate poverty will require greater, more broad-based growth, but also a concerted focus on increasing the capacity of the poor and vulnerable to accumulate assets, generate income, and better protect their livelihoods from shocks. Special attention should be given to vulnerable groups such as women and children and to rural areas, which are home to over half of the population and where extreme poverty persists, and income inequality is increasing.

Guyana was the South American country 20360the highest gross national income per capita, with 20,360 U.S. dollars per person in 2023. Uruguay ranked second, registering a GNI of 19,530 U.S. dollars per person, based on current prices. Gross national income (GNI) is the aggregated sum of the value added by residents in an economy, plus net taxes (minus subsidies) and net receipts of primary income from abroad. Which are the largest Latin American economies? Based on annual gross domestic product, which is the total amount of goods and services produced in a country per year, Brazil leads the regional ranking, followed by Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. Many Caribbean countries and territories hold the highest GDP per capita in this region, measurement that reflects how GDP would be divided if it was perfectly equally distributed among the population. GNI per capita is, however, a more exact calculation of wealth than GDP per capita, as it takes into consideration taxes paid and income receipts from abroad. How much inequality is there in Latin America? In many Latin American countries, more than half the total wealth created in their economies is held by the richest 20 percent of the population. When a small share of the population concentrates most of the wealth, millions of people don't have enough to make ends meet. For instance, in Brazil, about 5.32 percent of the population lives on less than 3.2 U.S. dollars per day.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to eradicate poverty and promote sustainable development; however, socioeconomic disparities persist globally, particularly in Colombia. With a Gini index of 0.556 in 2022, Colombia ranks among the most unequal countries in Latin America, with its southwest region of Nariño facing severe socioeconomic challenges. Concurrently, Nariño registers the highest levels of coca cultivation in Colombia, accounting for 65% of national cocaine production, reflecting the region’s precarious conditions. This study investigates the extent to which the spatial distribution of socioeconomic factors explains coca cultivation patterns in Nariño. Grounded in conflict economics, social capital, and social marginalization theories, the research constructs composite indices representing education, health, public services, economic conditions, and vulnerability. Using spatial analysis, it identifies areas with heightened poverty and vulnerability and examines their relationship with illicit crops. The findings highlight spatial non-stationarity in the factors influencing coca cultivation, offering region-specific insights and policy recommendations to combat illicit crops and foster sustainable development. These results provide a foundation for targeted interventions and contribute to broader strategies addressing inequality and illegal economies in Colombia.

Based on the degree of inequality in income distribution measured by the Gini coefficient, Colombia was the most unequal country in Latin America as of 2022. Colombia's Gini coefficient amounted to 54.8. The Dominican Republic recorded the lowest Gini coefficient at 37, even below Uruguay and Chile, which are some of the countries with the highest human development indexes in Latin America. The Gini coefficient explained The Gini coefficient measures the deviation of the distribution of income among individuals or households in a given country from a perfectly equal distribution. A value of 0 represents absolute equality, whereas 100 would be the highest possible degree of inequality. This measurement reflects the degree of wealth inequality at a certain moment in time, though it may fail to capture how average levels of income improve or worsen over time. What affects the Gini coefficient in Latin America? Latin America, as other developing regions in the world, generally records high rates of inequality, with a Gini coefficient ranging between 37 and 55 points according to the latest available data from the reporting period 2010-2023. According to the Human Development Report, wealth redistribution by means of tax transfers improves Latin America's Gini coefficient to a lesser degree than it does in advanced economies. Wider access to education and health services, on the other hand, have been proven to have a greater direct effect in improving Gini coefficient measurements in the region.

Uruguay was the Latin American country with the highest average monthly salary as of 2024, with a net value of around ***** U.S. dollars per month, followed by Costa Rica, with *** U.S. dollars per month. Employment development areas in Latin America Following the recuperation in this sector after the job losses endured throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate persists in its endeavor to stabilize. Informal employment remains as the predominant actor across most Latin American countries, serving as a primary avenue for economic sustenance. Notably, the construction sector has experienced substantial growth, outpacing other relevant industries like tourism and hospitality. Poverty Throughout the past two decades, poverty levels in Latin America remain unchanged. Honduras takes the lead as the country bearing the highest poverty rate, with nearly half of its population dwelling in these circumstances. Across the region, the prevalent delineation is that of individuals classified within the non-extreme and lower-middle poverty strata, characterized by modest income levels.

In 2025, Costa Rica was the Latin American country with the highest gender gap index, with 0.786 points. Another Central American country, Belize, had the worst score in the region with 0.7 points. This means that, on average, women in this country have 30 percent less opportunities than men in education, health, the economy, and politics.

Gender Inequality in Latin America
Based on a 2023 survey conducted among the populace in each nation, Mexico has been perceived as having the least gender-based wage equality, receiving a score of 0.5 out of 1, which is the lowest. In contrast, Barbados is regarded as the most gender-equal among the LATAM countries. Furthermore, the labor market exhibits a male bias, as women have consistently experienced higher unemployment rates over the years, with a rate of 11.3 percent as of 2021. Additionally, it is more common across the countries to observe a greater proportion of females experiencing higher poverty rates, with Mexican and Colombian women being the primary two groups representing this circumstance.

Literacy gender gap
As education progresses in both the educational and labor sectors, the goal is to ensure that basic literacy is accessible to everyone. However, research data reveals that the gender parity index for adult and youth literacy in Latin America remains at around 1 percent. This means that one woman out of 100 is less likely to possess literacy skills compared to men. Furthermore, this rate shows a significant gender gap, with 93.71 percent of females in this region accounting for this skill. Consequently, in the labor field, there are implications for skilled workers due to this literacy gap, resulting in higher rates of unemployment, a lack of training, and a non-educational population. This issue affects approximately 28.4 percent of women in Latin America.

Description of the variables considered to construct the indices.

Databases were used for the "Rewarding Performance in Disaster Response: Evidence from Local Governments in Latin America" research, which seeks to determine the electoral impact of disasters in Peru and Chile. For both countries, we created a similarly structured dataset containing municipal-level information on elections and participation, disasters, budgets and spending, socioeconomic outcomes, and geography. Each observation in the dataset corresponds to a municipality per year.

In the case of Peru, we included the municipal elections of 2010 and 2014, and for Chile, we analyzed the local elections of 2008, 2012, and 2016. Additionally, the datasets contain socioeconomic information, such as poverty and education. Our municipal-level treatment variable is defined as having experienced at least one disaster during the mayor's term in office.

In both countries, we utilized all available information on disasters, ensuring the inclusion of only large-scale public emergencies. For Peru, we included all disasters that occurred between 2007 and 2014, such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, and frosts. To ensure that only large-scale disasters were included, we identified a public emergency using two criteria: that it was officially declared a disaster area by the central government and that it received additional funds or emergency management. Our binary measure of the occurrence of a disaster combines these two indicators: whether the disaster occurred and whether it was accompanied by an additional budget transfer from the central level to address the crisis and mitigate its effects. Using these criteria, we identified 854 disasters across 532 municipalities.

For Chile, our dataset includes 243 disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions, occurring in 220 municipalities between 2008 and 2016. We included all floods and volcanic eruptions that were officially declared emergencies by the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (SENAPRED). For earthquakes, we used the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale to identify and include only the most affected municipalities. Since Chile is a country prone to earthquakes, there are many small-scale seismic movements that do not cause significant impacts. To ensure that only municipalities where the earthquake was strong enough to cause significant damage requiring major mayoral intervention were included, we coded as a disaster only those municipalities where the Mercalli scale intensity exceeded 7 out of a maximum of 10. In the case of earthquakes in Peru, we had already identified the most significant events because we included only those that received additional disaster-related funding from the national government.

Our performance measures focus on mayors' spending. For both Chile and Peru, we used total per capita municipal spending at the local level. Rather than only tracking funds earmarked specifically for disasters, we prefer to capture total spending to account for the use of various budget lines at mayors' disposal. We used inflation-adjusted values to compare results across years. We standardized the municipal expenditure variable (mean of zero and standard deviation of 1) to compare results across the two countries and included socioeconomic variables as controls.

Global descriptive statistics of variables and constructed indices.

In 2022, approximately 4.7 percent of the Mexican population were living on less than 3.20 U.S. dollars per day, a considerable decrease in comparison to the previous year. Furthermore, unemployment rate in this Latin American country during this period was at 3.2 percent. Poverty is considerably higher in the South In 2022, the three states with the highest poverty rate in the Aztec country were Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca, all in the southern region. In contrast, the top eight federal entities with the lowest were all in the North. The clear division is further accentuated by the Northern Border Free Zone, which encompasses 43 municipalities in the Mexico-U.S. border with higher minimum wages and lower taxes. Poverty in states such as Chiapas reaches over 67 percent, which means two out of three residents are under the poverty line and almost one out of three under extreme poverty conditions.
A country troubled by inequality Poverty and inequality are no news in Mexico. In the most recent data, around 80 percent of the total wealth of the country was concentrated in the top 10 percent of the population. Moreover, the bottom 50 percent had a negative share, meaning that half of the Mexican population had more debts than assets. But inequality does not only encompass wealth distribution, but Mexico also has a problem regarding gender inequality. The government has failed to achieve many of its goals to reduce the gap between genders.

Among selected Latin American countries in 2021, Mexico had the largest population that identify themselves as indigenous with over 25.28 million inhabitants. It was followed far behind by Peru, with 8.67 million. During 2020, Colombia and Ecuador ranked as the Latin American countries with the highest share of indigenous people living in poverty.

Among selected Latin American countries in 2021, Guatemala had the highest share of population that identify themselves as indigenous with over 43.5 percent. Bolivia followed with 41 percent of the total inhabitants. Colombia and Ecuador ranked as the Latin American countries with the highest share of indigenous people living in poverty.

In 2023, the share of the indigenous population in Colombia living behind the poverty line reached 63.5 percent. This share has been continuously increasing in recent years, this being the first decrease by 2.6 since the beginning of the covered period. Overall, this South American country had the highest share of indigenous population living in poverty than other Latin America countries such as Ecuador, Brazil, or Mexico.