One of the aspects contemplated in the management report of President Mario Abdo Benítez was the work plan to combat poverty. Official data reveals that, in reality, there is still a high percentage of people living in poverty and vulnerability in our country.
The Presidential Management Report 2022 mentions in one of its points the National Poverty Reduction Plan “Jajapo Paraguay” that proposes the comprehensive, orderly and prioritized arrival of social interventions, to transform the local socioeconomic reality and achieve the higher objective of “reduce poverty in Paraguay in all its forms”.
The reality that exists today is very different from what is mentioned in the papers, since the same official data confirms that there are more and more people in a situation of poverty and vulnerability in our country.
According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) obtained through the 2021 Permanent Household Survey, the incidence of poverty in the Paraguayan population is 26.9% of the total population (7,254,456), which represents around 1,951,000 people with per capita income below the cost of the basic food basket. This is the same percentage as the year 2020 and has a difference of just over 3% compared to 2019.
Regarding extreme poverty, the percentage is 3.9% in 2021, also standing at the same level as in 2020 and with just 0.1% difference from 2019. This represents approximately 283,000 people, whose per capita income is less than the Basic Food Basket.
In absolute values, it can be seen that the number of poor people increased between 2020 and 2021. INE data reveals that the number of people in total poverty was 1,951,020 last year, more than 29,000 compared to 2020 and almost 294,000 compared to 2019.
Breaking down the population over 60 years of age, the report indicates that in 2020 there were a total of 711,390, more than 39,000 in relation to 2019. In the urban area, the number of people in poverty was 438,434 in 2020 , with an additional difference of 27,460 in relation to the previous year. On the other hand, in the rural area there were 272,956 people in this condition, with more than 12,000 people joining in relation to 2019.
Reviewing the extreme poverty data, they indicate that in 2021 a total of 283,523 people were reached, almost 4,000 more if the data collected in 2020 is taken.
Regarding the severity of total poverty, the data reveals that the percentage was reduced by just 0.3% in 2021, although the record for 2019 was equaled when it had also reached 3.5%. In the rural area, the statistic did not suffer any variation between 2020 and 2021, still remaining at 5%.
