In 2022, Chile recorded a historic low in poverty levels since the initiation of records in 1987, with a drop to 6.5% from 10.7% in 2020.
This data comes from the preliminary findings of the 2022 National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey (Casen) as published by the Ministry of Social Development and Family.
The Ministry’s report noted that this figure reflects a 4.2 percentage point decrease from 2020 and a 2 percentage point drop from 2017 (8.5%), marking the lowest recorded poverty level since the survey’s inception.
The collected data indicate a favorable trend for the country as Chile continues decreasing poverty rates.
The survey, conducted by the University of Chile’s School of Economics and Business and the Ministry of Social Development and Family, reported that 1,292,521 people live below the income poverty line, while 397,963 people are experiencing extreme poverty.
The extreme poverty rate dropped to 2% in 2022, down from 4.3% in 2020 to 2.3% in 2017.
Regarding economic inequality, the 2022 Casen survey highlighted that the income of the top fifth of households was 8.2 times that of the lowest-earning households, indicating an improvement compared to previous years and marking the best results in the series.
The Casen 2022 survey, conducted between November 1, 2022, and February 2, 2023, gathered information from 72,056 households across the country, covering a total of 202,231 individuals.