More than 50% of children in Argentina are poor, says UCA report

More than half of Argentina’s children and adolescents were living in poverty in December last year, according to a new report from the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA).

The report, published by the Observatorio de la Deuda Social de la Universidad Católica Argentina ("Observatory of Social Debt at the Catholic University of Argentina,” ODSA-UCA), found that 53.6 percent of people aged under 18 did not meet minimum needs in terms of nutrition and social environment.

However, the figure is a marked decline from the heights of the past two years, said ODSA-UCA. 

At the start of Milei’s administration in December 2023, poverty affected 62.9 percent of children and adolescents, according to the poverty watchdog. It then fell to 59.7 percent at the end of 2024 and to 53.6 percent last year.

UCA’s data shows that the best situation for minors was in 2011, when poverty among those aged under 18 dropped to 35.7 percent.

In recent years, UCA’s poverty measurements – which are held in high regard by specialists – have been several points above those given by the INDEC national statistics bureau, Argentina’s official data tracker. 

The difference, experts say, is how poverty is measured – where the government uses a purely monetary value, UCA’s academic team uses a multi-dimensional approach.

INDEC data published last month showed that 28.2 percent of Argentines were living in poverty in the second half of last year – down from 31.6 percent in the first half of 2025.

The ODSA-UCA report, which looks at poverty among children over the period 2010-2025, shows two great spikes in the numbers: the first in 2018, when 51.7 percent of kids were considered poor; the second from 2020 onwards, when the percentage soared above 60 percent. 

Improved welfare policies and falling inflation under the Milei government have since ltered the trend, said the report’s authors.

The UCA body also found that the number of households with children and adolescents among their members is in steady decline. In 1991, 56 percent of households included members under the age of 18, whereas by 2022 the figure had fallen to 44 percent.

By 2025, all jurisdictions in the country are projected to fall below the general replacement level of 2.1 children per woman.

The report adds that 42 percent of poor children live in housing conditions with inadequate sanitation, including issues such as waste treatment and sewage.

Another relevant finding is that 61.2 percent do not have medical coverage through trade union schemes, mutual associations, or private health insurance schemes, often as a reult of being employed ‘off the books.’

Also concerning is data showing that 82 percent of schoolchildren do not take part in extracurricular cultural activities.

Some 18 percent showed symptoms of sadness or anxiety, according to their primary caregivers – the incidence is higher in adolescence (21.2 percent), with adolescent girls at greater risk than boys.

Social inequalities are also pronounced: the very low-income group (20.7 percent) is twice as likely to experience emotional distress as the upper-middle group (10.6 percent). In addition, sadness or anxiety increases the likelihood of poor learning outcomes at school by 46%.

With regards to education, only half have a computer at home and just 16 percent have access to the Internet.

Only 6.3 percent of schoolchildren receive any form of financial assistance for their studies, said the UCA report.

– TIMES/NA