Mexico | 3.8 million more poor and 2.1 million more in extreme poverty between 2018-2020

Between 2018 and 2020, the population living in poverty increased by 7.3%, from 51.9 to 55.7 million inhabitants, and the population living in extreme poverty grew 24.1%, from 8.7 to 10.8 million. The increase in the population with a lack of access to health services stands out, which went from 16.2% to 28.2%.

Key points

• Key points:
• The official measurement of poverty in Mexico carried out by Coneval indicated that there were 55.7 million people in poverty in 2020, 43.9% of the total population, of which 10.8 million (8.5%) were in extreme poverty.
• Between 2018 and 2020, the population living in poverty increased by 7.3%, from 51.9 to 55.7 million inhabitants, and the population living in extreme poverty grew 24.1%, from 8.7 to 10.8 million people.
• In addition to the effects of the pandemic, among the reasons that explain the growth in poverty levels between 2018 and 2020, the significant increase in the population with a lack of access to health services stands out, which went from 16.2% to 28.2%. This is explained by the transition from Seguro Popular to Insabi, which, among other factors, was affected by the pandemic.
• The new 2018-2020 series of indicators for measuring poverty in Coneval are more lax compared to the criteria used between 2008-2018. With the new criteria, in 2018 there are 535,000 fewer people in poverty, and 614,000 fewer in extreme poverty.
• For the 2018-2020 period, Coneval updated the indicators for measuring poverty in Mexico, breaking the comparability with previous years and without significant progress in the methodology used. Since 2008, multidimensional measurement was based on the Alkire-Foster methodology, but after 12 years, no progress has been made towards the implementation of a Multidimensional Poverty Index, as other countries have.

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