Number of people in poverty is the smallest in 7 years, but almost ⅓ of Argentines continue unable to meet essential needs
Survey released by the (National Institute of Argentine Statistics and Census in Portuguese) on Thursday (25.Set.2025) shows that 31.6% of the country’s population in urban areas lives in poverty. There are 9.5 million people in this condition.
The rate registered by the institute has been the lowest since the 1st semester of 2018, when 23.7% of Argentines were considered poor or indigent. Read the document (PDF – 1,510 kb in Spanish).
The survey released by Indec considers the 31 main metropolitan regions of the country, but does not include Argentines living in rural areas.
The study shows that there was a drop of 6.5 pp (percentage points) compared to the 2nd semester of 2024. In the 2nd half of last year, 38.1% of Argentines living in cities were below the poverty line.
In the accumulated 2 years, there was a retreat of 8.5 pp in the 1st semester of 2023, were 40.1%. The President (La Libertad Avanza, right) inaugurated on December 10 of that year.
To determine who is below the poverty line, INDEC uses a calculation based on family performance and access to food, transportation, clothing, health and education.
According to the survey, 24.7% of Argentina’s urban population is considered poor poor – live in a house that does not have enough income to meet essential and non -food needs. In total there are 7.4 million people in this condition.
There are still 6.9% (2.1 million) that lives in indigence. The institute falls into this situation the person who lives in a home that does not have enough income to bear a basic basket that can meet a minimum threshold of food needs.
10 million leave poverty in 1 year
The Indec states that if extended to rural areas, the number of poor people in Argentina approaches 15 million. There are 10 million people less than in the 1st semester of 2024, when people in poverty in the country.
At the time, this number corresponded to 52.9% of the population. In the annual comparison, there was a drop of 21.3 pp
Government celebrates
At the result of the research on his X (former Twitter) profile, Milei made a pun with the name of his party, La Libertad Avanza (freedom advances). The Argentine president stated that “Either freedom advances, or Argentina backwards”.
“Poverty continues to fall […] Live Freedom, Fuck ”wrote, repeating the slogan of the presidential campaign.
In literal translation, it means “Long live freedom, fucking”. The word “Cajo” It does not have the same pejorative connotation as its equivalent in Portuguese (understand more).
The Minister of the Civil House of Argentina, the fall to the economic policy of the government. “As we said from the beginning: Maintaining responsible economic policies is a clear course to generate concrete results […] Fiscal discipline, macroeconomic stability and impulse to productive activity are transforming the economy and generating concrete opportunities ”he said.
