The IDECBA Buenos Aires City Statistics and Census Institute has revealed that there are 989,000 poor people in the nation's capital, out of which 417,000 are destitute.
The data can be found in a report entitled "Living Conditions in Buenos Aires City" and it applies to the second quarter of 2024. The findings imply there are 159,000 new poor people compared to the same period last year.
Nevethetlees, that figure has decreased with respect to the first quarter of the year, with 54,000 people improving their condition.
Poverty affected 26.4 percent of households (358,000) and 32.1 percent of people (989,000) in the capital.
"The impact on the population is the second highest in the historical series started in 2015 for a second quarter, only exceeded by the 2020 data, during lockdown," reads the report.
Destitution, in turn, reached 9.2 percent of homes (125,000) and 13.5 percent of people (417,000), “also one of the highest incidences together with those at the start of the pandemic,” the study disclosed.
In this context, it indicated that “within the entirety of households and people and people living in poverty, the weight of those in an extreme condition (destitution) has increased, now accounting for 34.8 percent of underprivileged homes and 42.1 percent of people in that condition”.
As for the impact of this scourge on minors, the assessment by the City body showed that “45.4 percent of children and teenagers (aged 0-17) live in poor homes (304,000 people in that age group)”, which entails a rise from the data one year ago, when it reached 39.6 percent.
Among the sectors most affected by poverty are households headed by women (where the incidence of poverty is 31.0 percent, as against 21.5 percent in homes with a male head), those with an unemployed person (2.6 times higher than the incidence of the total), or by one working in domestic service (61.1 percent).
It also affects homes located in the South of the City (42.4 percent) and those with children under 14 (39.9 percent), the latter with growing incidences of poverty and destitution with the number of children in the household. Homes with an adult living in poverty account for 26.4 percent, a value similar to that of the entire population.
In relation to the economic sustenance of Buenos Aires City families, the report specified that “the family income per capita of homes in a destitution condition is 76,510 pesos and in poor homes is 203,506 pesos”, and thus it calculated that “on average, it may be required to transfer 283,071 pesos to every poor home for them to leave that condition”, specifying that “that income gap accounts, on average, for 39.5 percent of the total food basket”.
At the same time, the analysis revealed that “in opposition to the increase in the weight of strata living in poverty, the weight of non-poor strata is reduced, always year-to-year”, while “within this set, the participation of the middle sector and affluent sectors is reduced”.
In this respect, it added that “middle sectors associated with ‘the middle class’ account for the highest category: 44.2 percent of households in Buenos Aires City and 39.6 percent of the population (some 598,000 homes and 1,221,000 people respectively) and its participation dropped by 5.2 percentage points in homes and 5.5 points in the population over the last year”, noting that “these incidences, together with those of the previous quarter, are the lowest in the historical series started in 2015."
Affluent sectors, in turn, have also fallen, since “the percentage of households is 6.1 percent and that of people 5.3 percent and reaches 82,000 homes and 163,000 people”, dropping from 8.3 percent and 5.7 percent respectively. On this point, the work indicates that “the year-to-year decrease also makes current figures the lowest in the series”.
– TIMES/NA
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