Mexico | Notable progress, poverty at its lowest level of 29.6%, but inequalities persist

Summary

After the dissolution of Coneval, Inegi has assumed responsibility for measuring poverty and for the comprehensive evaluation of Mexico’s social development policy. This note analyzes the results of Inegi’s first 2024 multidimensional poverty report.

Key points

• Key points:
• In 2024, 29.6% of Mexico's population was living in poverty, 12.3 percentage points less than in 2018 (13.4 million fewer people living in poverty). Extreme poverty also decreased, reaching 5.3% of the population (1.7 million fewer people living in extreme poverty between 2018 and 2024).
• Among the six deprivations that make up the multidimensional poverty measurement, the one with the highest value in 2024 is lack of social security, with nearly half of the population in the country lacking access. This is followed by lack of access to health services, where one in three people in Mexico remains without coverage.
• Poverty: Chiapas (66.0%), Guerrero (58.1%), and Oaxaca (51.6%) were the federal entities with the highest proportion of their population living in poverty in 2024. The federal entities with the lowest poverty rates were Baja California (9.9%), Baja California Sur (10.2%), and Nuevo León (10.6%). Poverty in Chiapas is almost six times higher than in Baja California.
• Extreme poverty: Chiapas, Guerrero, Veracruz, and Oaxaca accounted for 54% of the population living in extreme poverty in 2024. In Baja California, Nuevo León, Aguascalientes, and Coahuila, less than 1% of the population lives in extreme poverty.
• The results suggest that labor policies have been more effective in reducing poverty than social transfers. Therefore, it is crucial to continue promoting policies that reduce informality, increase investment, and raise productivity, as key strategies for a sustained reduction in poverty. Furthermore, it is important to consider better targeting social programs to ensure they are more effective in alleviating poverty

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