Poverty in Mexico

Poverty in Mexico deals with the incidence of poverty in Mexico and its measurement. It is measured based on social development laws in the country and under parameters such as nutrition, clean water, shelter, education, health care, social security, quality and availability of basic services in households, income and social cohesion.^[2] It is divided in two categories: moderate poverty and extreme poverty.

According to CONEVAL,^[3] the institution designated to measure poverty in Mexico, poverty analysis should not only look at monetary income but also at social factors. Six different lacks serve as indicators in terms of measuring poverty,^[3] which are educational backwardness, access to health services, access to social security, access to (decent) food, quality of housing spaces, and finally access to basic services in housing (having a roof to live in and access to certain goods and services).

To be considered poor, it is enough to have an income below the well-being line (income that is less than food and non-food basic basket), regardless of the amount of social deficiencies that the person has, if any. On the other hand, there is extreme poverty, the most precarious situation in which a person can be,^[3] and this is manifested when the income received by a person is less than the food basket and also has three or more lacks previously mentioned.

While less than 2% of Mexico's population lives below the international poverty line set by the World Bank, as of 2013, Mexico's government estimates that 33% of the population lives in moderate poverty and 9% lives in extreme poverty,^[4] which leads to 42% of Mexico's total population living below the national poverty line.^[5] The extreme gap is explained by the government's adoption of the multidimensional poverty method as a way to measure poverty, which outlines that a person with an income above the "international poverty line" or "well being income line", set by the Mexican government, falls in the "moderate poverty" category if he or she has one or more deficiencies related to social rights such as education (did not complete studies), nutrition (malnutrition or obesity), or living standards (access to elemental services such as water or electricity, and secondary domestic assets, such as refrigerators). Extreme poverty is defined by the Mexican government as deficiencies in both social rights and incomes lower than the "well being income line".^[6] Additional figures from SEDESOL (Mexico's social development agency) estimate that 6% of the population (7.4 million people) lives in extreme poverty and suffers from food insecurity.^[7]

The high numbers of poverty in the country, despite Mexico's positive potential is a recurrent topic of discussion among professionals.^[8] Some economists have speculated that in four more decades of continuous economic growth, even with emigration and violence, Mexico will be among the five biggest economies in the world, along with China, the United States, Japan, and India.^[9]

Recently, extensive changes in government economic policy^[10] and attempts at reducing government interference through privatization of several sectors,^[11] allowed Mexico to remain the biggest economy in Latin America ^[12] up until 2005 when it became the second-largest.^[13] Despite these changes, Mexico continues to suffer great social inequality and lack of opportunities.^[14] The previous administration made an attempt at reducing poverty in the country by providing more professional and educational opportunities to its citizens, as well as establishing a universal healthcare.^[15][16]