Due to rising inflation, poverty has reached 30.1% of the inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires in the third quarter of 2023, approximately 928,000 people.
These numbers exceed those of the same period last year (22.1%), according to the Report of the Directorate of Statistics and Censuses of the City of Buenos Aires, with a very strong decline in the middle class from 47.2% to 40.7% between the end of 2022 and the end of 2023.
The most significant decline occurred compared to the third quarter of last year, when this sector accounted for 46.7%.
In 2015, when the statistical series began, the middle class reached 51.9%. That is, in 8 years they have reduced from 1.5 million to 1,254,000 people.
While, poverty has reached 12.2% of people (376,000 people) when in the fourth quarter of 2022 it was 7.7%. “Within the group of families and people in poverty, those who find themselves in extreme situations (poverty) increase.which comes to represent 35.5% of families and 40.5% of people with an income deficit”, supports the work of Indec.
“Despite the high activity and employment rates, income expansion was not enough maintain the living conditions of the population at the levels of the previous year. The increase in labor and non-labor income was well below the increase in prices. In earned income, the loss of real income occurs in all professional categories and in non-work areas it stands out the loss of purchasing power of pensions and pensions”says the Report.
The official report also indicates that the living conditions of families in the City are deteriorating on a general level, influencing access to basic baskets and reducing the weight of the middle sectors.
“The decline in well-being is also observed in the medium sectors. Approximately 199,000 people who were in this stratum move down the income pyramid. Families in poverty together with those in vulnerable situations constitute the aggregate of families in vulnerable conditions, which in the period represent 35.2% of the total. 40.2% of the city’s population lives there.”
The Report states that some groups are more affected by poverty than others.
- In the female-headed households The incidence of poverty is 26% (compared to 22.6% for a male boss), for an unemployed person it is 2.6 times higher than the incidence on the total and 55.8% for a person employed in domestic service.
- In families located in the South, poverty is 34.1% and in those with children under 14 it is 39.8%. The latter with an incidence of poverty and destitution that increases with the number of boys and girls present in the home.
- The share of families with the presence of elderly people who are in poverty is lower than the average (17.2%) and decreases with the number of people over 65 years old present in the home, due to the extensive pension coverage which guarantees a minimum income.
- 43.5% of children and adolescents (0-17 years) live in families in poverty (301,500 people). A year ago the percentage was 33.8%.
- Families in vulnerable situations represent 10.9% of families (148,500 families) in which 10.1% of the population (312,000 people) live. Added to the group of families in poverty, they constitute vulnerable families, which amount to 35.2% (approximately 478,500 homes), in which 40.2% of the population lives (approximately 1,240,500 people). Over the past year, this population aggregate has increased by 34.5%.
* The middle sectors associated with the “middle class” constitute 40.7% of the population, 1,254,000 people”. The data is the lowest in the entire historical series. In the fourth quarter of 2015 they represented 51.9% of the population of Buenos Aires, they dropped to 48.6% in the fourth quarter of 2019, to 47.2% in the fourth quarter of 2022 and to 40.7% at the end of 2023 .
Source: Clarin
