In the second half of 2025, poverty fell in Argentina to 28.2%, a record that is the lowest in the last seven years and represents a reduction of 3.4 percentage points compared to the previous semester and almost ten points compared to a year ago. Although the great improvement in the indicator is seen in comparison with the peak generated by the abrupt devaluation that Javier Milei himself decreed at the beginning of his mandate, the Government celebrated the official data published this Tuesday as a great triumph, at a time when it is being stalked by .
“The sharp decline in poverty and indigence is based on economic growth, the disinflation process and the reinforcement of social programs without intermediaries since the beginning of the administration,” highlighted the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo.
The report, prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec), shows that within the universe of the population considered poor – which reaches around 13.3 million people – 6.3% are in a situation of destitution, that is, they cannot even guarantee food in their homes. The panorama is especially critical in childhood: in children up to 14 years of age, poverty reaches 41.3%, which means that four out of every ten children grow up in that context. Social inequality is also reflected at the geographic level. In the northeastern region of the country the figure rises to 32.7%, while in others such as Patagonia it is around 25.4%.
In the last two years the poverty rate has changed violently. It shot up 11 points in the first six months after Milei arrived at the Casa Rosada, reaching almost 53% of the population, the highest figure in two decades, comparable only to the moment when the country was emerging from the worst crisis in its recent history. This jump was linked to what caused prices to shoot up 25.5% in December 2023 and 20.6% more in the following January and generated a huge loss of purchasing capacity.
After that initial shock, inflation began to moderate and there was a partial recovery of income of private workers, retirees and recipients of state subsidies that improved the scenario somewhat. In the second half of 2024, poverty showed a drop of almost 15 points compared to the previous measurement and stood at 38.1%. “Take note, baboons,” Javier Milei was emboldened at the time. The following data, which covered the first half of 2025, maintained the trend towards poverty reduction, although in a more subtle way, marking 31.6% of the population in that condition. The record published this Tuesday shows that the downward trend in poverty continued, although softer, and that the level today is almost 25 percentage points lower than the peak with which Milei inaugurated his government.
“Poverty fell, as expected, but the magnitude of the decline was above expectations. The stagnation in the fight against inflation in the second semester does not seem to have affected Indec’s poverty measurement,” said economist Leopoldo Tornarolli, researcher at the Center for Distributive, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS) of the National University of La Plata (UNLP).
Poverty is not measured in the same way everywhere. In Argentina, the value of a basket of basic consumption is calculated and compared with the income level of the population. Those who do not have enough income to purchase that basket are considered poor. Those who do not have enough income to even buy a smaller basket, composed only of food, are considered destitute.
This basket is designed based on a consumer survey that is more than 20 years old and generates distortions. While it overestimates consumption that has been reduced over time – such as the number of kilos of meat consumed per inhabitant -, it underestimates others that have added weight to the lives of families – such as services or housing -, which ends up overestimating the improvement of the indicator by around five percentage points, estimates Eduardo Donza, researcher at the Argentine Social Debt Observatory of the Argentine Catholic University (UCA).
In the country, poverty is a structural problem, which has remained above 25% for decades, and whose responsibility exceeds a specific government. According to Donza, this is because the State has a relatively efficient system of aid to the neediest families—which includes tools such as the Universal Child Allowance (AUH) or the Alimentar Card—that mitigates poverty and, above all, indigence, which without this aid would almost double. “These transfers are very necessary, and the Government understands it this way because it maintained them and even increased them, but we Argentines know well that in order to get out of poverty the labor market has to improve, something that is not happening,” says Donza. In fact, he estimates that in the coming months the impact of the closure of companies and the drop in activity in the sectors of the economy that generate the most employment will begin to be recorded.
Statistical data, which are often greatly affected by specific variables, can be complemented with others that allow a more complex approach to the general situation of Argentines. Official data reveal, for example, that in the last two years, and various reports expose the fact that they are going into more and more debt to cover current expenses.
