Monetary poverty and extreme poverty in Colombia presented a new reduction during 2024, as revealed although with a nuance that attracts attention and again opens the debate on the role of the authorities.
Specifically, according to this report, institutional aids, that is, subsidies Delived by the State to relieve this problem, they are progressively losing their ability to influence the result and completed last year, three consecutive periods down.
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The first thing to say, to better understand this reality, is that national monetary poverty went from 34.6% in 2023 to 31.8% in 2024, while extreme poverty decreased from 12.6% to 11.7%. According to the director of this entity, Piedad Urdinola, both reductions are statistically significant and equals 1.27 million people who left monetary poverty and 420,000 who left extreme poverty behind in a single year.
Subsidies lose strength
While the figure is positive, when analyzing the factors that explain this fall, the panorama becomes more complex, since a The key tools in Colombia have been the social programs of the State.
Monetary poverty data in Colombia reached its lowest point since you have registration.
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Transfers such as Citizen Income, Colombia, young people in action or VAT compensation have operated as security networks for millions of vulnerable homes. However, its real impact has been decreasing, if one takes into account that in 2022, aid Institutional contributed to reducing monetary poverty by 7.4 percentage points, and extreme poverty by 8.9 points.
The incidence of #Pobrezamoneria In 2024 it decreased 2.8 percentage points in the national domain (31.8 %) and more than three percentage points in headwaters (28.6 %). While in populated and rural centers dispersed, the difference was 1.5 pp, from 44.0% to 42.5%. pic.twitter.com/kmiffjzkjq
– Dane Colombia (@dane_colombia) July 24, 2025
By 2023, that contribution fell to 2.8 and 3.5 points, respectively, and in 2024, the effect was even lower, with only 2.3 percentage points in monetary poverty and 2.6 points in extreme poverty.
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This means that subsidies continue to help, but they are no longer the main engine Behind the fall of poverty and in proportional terms, its power has been reduced more than two thirds in just two years. In addition, although the DANE does not interpret causes, the data are conclusive and open the debate on the effectiveness of the current model of transfers.
One of the variables that does explain part of the improvement is the growth of per capita income, since the national average went from $ 1,054,223 in 2023 to $ 1,169,770 in 2024, which translates into an increase of 11% in current pesos. This growth was mainly driven by labor income, especially in intermediate quintiles; While the poorest quintiles grew little in real terms, and the richest barely increased their income, which helped slightly reduce the Gini coefficient, which fell from 0.553 to 0.551.
Monetary poverty data in Colombia reached its lowest point since you have registration.
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Poverty lines in Colombia
On the other hand, the DANE said that the monetary poverty line by 2024 was $ 460,198 per month, while the extreme poverty line was $ 227,220. In the same way, in a home of four people, This is equivalent to minimum income of $ 1,840,792 and $ 908,880, respectively, not to be considered poor.
Piedad Urdinola, director of the statistical authority, explained this point with a real example, telling that “a woman who works for days in the domestic service and lives with her daughter and grandson. Both women generate a joint monthly income of $ 1,160,000. Although it seems an acceptable figure, by dividing it by three, each person has just $ 386,666 pesos per month, which places the home below the home poverty”.
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In this way he sentenced that in this case, the three people are poorS, despite being receiving income every month.
The report also clearly shows who are still more vulnerable and argues that households headed by women have an incidence of monetary poverty of 36.1%, compared to 28.4% of those led by men.
Monetary poverty data in Colombia reached its lowest point since you have registration.
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Poverty affects 56.6% of unemployed household chiefs and 43% of those who are not affiliated with pensions; While schooling is another decisive factor, since 42.9% of households with bosses without education or only with primary schools are in poverty, while Among those who have university or postgraduate education, poverty barely reaches 6.9%.
Territorial gaps
In Dane analysis, it is also reported that home size and the presence of young children also aggravate the situation, since in homes without children under 12 years, monetary poverty is 19.7%, but if there are three or more children, the figure is triggered at 76.3%. In addition, when no member of the home is busy, 49% of those homes fall into poverty, compared to 21% when there are two or more people working.
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Another of the data that attracts attention has to do with the regional gapsS, where although poverty fell in all large domains, the dispersed rural area maintains very high levels of 42.5% in monetary poverty and 21.8% in extreme poverty, compared to 28.6% and 8.7% in municipal headwaters. Large cities show important advances.
Bogotá, for example, lowered its monetary poverty from 24.1% to 19.6%, and Ibagué from 36.9% to 31.3%. But cities like Riohacha saw an increase in extreme poverty, from 23.5% to 25.9%.
Poverty in Colombia has had advances, but maintains several challenges.
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Meanwhile, the gaps for ethnic self -recognition are also noticeable if one takes into account that in 2024, 58.5% of households with indigenous headquarters were in monetary poverty, compared to 42.9% of Afro -descendants and 36.5% of those who do not identify ethnically. In extreme poverty, the incidence was 29.3%, 18.9% and 9.7% percent, respectively.
In this way, it remains on the table that the panorama is mixed and on the one hand, the aggregate indicators show that the country progresses in the reduction of poverty, but on the other they warn that the main instrument that had been decisive in previous years, the subsidies, is losing the capacity to respond and require a review of the future, since if the aids lose effectiveness and income they do not continue to grow, there is no risk that there is a risk of poverty. increase.
Daniel Hernández Naranjo
Portfolio journalist
