Overview
- CEPAL says 25.5% of the region’s population—about 162 million people—lived in income poverty in 2024, down 2.2 percentage points from 2023.
- Extreme poverty affected 9.8% of people in 2024, or roughly 62 million, a 0.8-point decline from 2023 yet still 2.1 points above the 2014 low.
- Multidimensional poverty fell to 20.9% in 2024 from 34.4% in 2014, helped by advances in housing and basic services.
- The agency attributes most of the regional improvement to Mexico and, to a lesser extent, Brazil; in Mexico it highlights public transfers and minimum-wage increases.
- For 2025, CEPAL projects only a slight further reduction with growth near 2.4%, and ranks Mexico 4th for poverty reduction this year (−3.1%) and Brazil 7th (−1.9%), with Honduras, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic leading.