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Argentina’s Middle Class Is Shrinking, New PensarLab Report Finds

Based on 2,319 surveys plus INDEC data, PensarLab quantifies a middle tier reshaped by lost purchasing power, with mobility fading.

Overview

  • 41% say they live worse than their parents, 55% perceive the middle class is shrinking, and 63% report cutting regular consumption.
  • Two-thirds place themselves at the lower edge of the scale, with 34% identifying as lower middle class and 34% as upper lower class.
  • Six in ten respondents say their jobs allow them to subsist rather than progress, underscoring stalled upward mobility.
  • Using INDEC data and PensarLab thresholds, the study estimates 43% of households as middle class, 52% as lower class, and 5% as upper class.
  • The report describes a shift from the ‘aspirational’ to the ‘sacrificial’ consumer, with essentials such as private health plans treated as last to cut and a more demanding middle-class electorate taking shape.