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This note contains various indicators of labor poverty as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2025 (based on the latest figures updated by Inegi). Labor poverty is defined as the percentage of the population whose per capita labor income is insufficient to cover the cost of the basic food basket.

Labor poverty measures, in the short term, the relationship between household labor income and the cost of the food basket, that is, their purchasing power. An increase in labor income would improve a household’s economic situation, while an increase in the cost of the food basket would worsen it.

Poverty stood at 31.8% in 2024, down from 34.6% in 2023 – a reduction of 2.8 percentage points. This means 1.3 million people exited poverty between 2023 and 2024. Overall, between 2012 and 2024, poverty decreased by 9.2 pp, falling from 41% to 31.8%.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval) estimated that 35.4% of the population in Mexico was in a situation of working poverty, which represents an increase of 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous quarter.

Poverty in LATAM represents a complex and diverse challenge. On average, monetary poverty affects 37% of the population in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. A Multidimensional Poverty Index constructed for these countries identifies key deprivations linked to health coverage, economic dependency, and education.

This note analyzes the latest measurement regarding the proportion of the population in Mexico that is in labor poverty in the second quarter of 2024, carried out by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval).

The labor poverty indicator in Mexico was 35.8% during the first quarter of 2024, reaching its lowest level in nearly 17 years, specifically, since the third quarter of 2007, when it was 35.2%.