The National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) presented a new report on poverty figures in Colombia, in which the entity reviewed the gaps that appear in this indicator in terms of gender, ethnicity or people victims of conflict or migrants.
(Radiography of poverty in Colombia in 2021).
As explained by the director of Dane, Juan Daniel Oviedo, during the pandemic there was an increase in the incidence of the indicator in the case of the female population, to the point that in 2020 there were 121 women for every 100 men in poverty. in the same situation. For 2021, the figure showed improvement, but a ratio of 117 poor women for every 100 men persists.
“Monetary poverty has a woman’s face, it affects women in a more important way in our society. The pandemic affected women more importantly because it impacted the economic activities they were involved in and the children were at home,” Oviedo said.
It is worth mentioning that the monetary poverty rate in 2021 was 39.3%. In the case of men, it was 38.2%, while for women it was 40.3%, which represents a gender gap of 2.0 percentage points.
(Reasons why the population in poverty fell in Colombia).
In 2021, the incidence of monetary poverty, according to the sex of the head of household, was 37.0% for men and 42.9% for women, with a difference of 5.9 percentage points (pps); regarding extreme monetary povertywhich at the national level stood at 12.2%, the incidence of poverty by sex of the head of household for extreme monetary poverty for men was 10.8% and for women 14.5%, a gap of 3.7 pps
OTHER GAPS
The Dane also analyzed the situation of other population groups, as is the case of the victims. According to the Dane’s records for 2021, the gap between victims and the national average was 10.8 pps in terms of monetary poverty, with an incidence of 50.1% of the population.
In the case of extreme poverty, the rate for this group is 17.9%, a gap of 5.7 pps. Additionally, as Oviedo emphasized, victims of forced displacement report poverty rates slightly higher than the total number of victims.
(Reactions to the monetary poverty figure in Colombia).
The Dane also announced that monetary poverty according to ethnicity in 2021 was 61.6% for indigenous people, while for this same population extreme poverty was 33.7%. This represented a reduction compared to the data for 2020, with rates in that year of 62.0% and 36.6%, respectively.
As for the black, mulatto, Afro-descendant and Afro-Colombian ethnic groups, by 2021, monetary poverty was 46.1% and extreme poverty was 17.3%. In 2020 the figures were 46.7% and 17.5%.
In the case of migrants, the incidence of poverty in 2021 was 63.4% in the case of Venezuelan migrants, a gap of 24.1 pps.
LAURA LUCIA BECERRA ELEJALDE
