Colombia’s multidimensional poverty dropped to 12.9% in 2022: how many are affected?

By Valerie Cifuentes

After the spike in 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis, in 2022, multidimensional poverty in Colombia reached 12.9% of the population, a reduction of 3.1 percentage points (pps) compared to what was reported in 2021 (16%), said the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane).

This means that Colombia went from having approximately 8.1 million people with low quality of life conditions in 2021 to 6.6 million in 2022, according to the statistical entity.

This means that 1.47 million people escaped from multidimensional poverty in 2021.

It is worth mentioning that multidimensional poverty also fell in the cities (capitals) and rural areas (populated centers and dispersed rural areas).

In 2022, 8.7% of the population living in cities was in this type of poverty, while in rural areas, it reached 27.3% of the population.

According to Dane data, the figures reported in 2022 were the lowest for multidimensional poverty in the last 12 years.

It should be noted that unlike monetary poverty, which broadly reviews how many Colombians have the minimum income to live with the basics per month, multidimensional poverty asks about the conditions in which Colombians live through five major dimensions:

• educational conditions of the household,
• housing and public services conditions,
• conditions of children and adolescents,
• health,
• and work.

WHAT EXPLAINS THE REDUCTION OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY IN 2022?

According to the director of the Dane, Piedad Urdinola, “One of the most important factors in reducing multidimensional poverty in Colombia during 2022 was to return to face-to-face attendance. This led to school absenteeism being more controlled”.

In the national total and the cities, the reduction in the school absenteeism indicator was the most significant.

In 2022, 2.3% of households in Colombia were deprived of school attendance, while in the case of cities, it was 1.9%.

In both cases, the reduction was approximately 3 points.

In rural areas, the school attendance indicator was the second with the greatest reductions of the 15 analyzed.

The reduction was 3.6 points for 3.6% of households with deprivations in this area.

Without yet knowing the official data on poverty in Colombia in 2022, the government has made some calculations for its reduction goals, but they are not very clear.

Out of 15 indicators that make up the five dimensions that analyze multidimensional poverty in Colombia, there was an improvement in 14 in the national total and the capitals compared to what was reported in 2021.

Thus, according to DANE data, only in the indicator of low educational achievement were improvements in 2022.

Regarding the above, Director Urdinola said that since “many young people stopped attending school because of the pandemic, reenrolling them has been quite complex.”

“Once a child drops out of school, it is difficult for them to return. This is one of the post-pandemic effects we are experiencing”.

In the case of rural areas, out of 15 indicators analyzed, 3 showed deterioration: long-term unemployment, informal work, and school lag.

With information from Bloomberg

News Colombia, English news Colombia, Colombia’s multidimensional poverty