MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Almost 14% of Chilean population described as poor or indigent

The latest poll on Socioeconomic characterization of the Chilean population shows that since 1990 the number of Chileans living in “poverty conditions” has dropped to almost half, but still over two million continue to be poor including half a million indigent.

The report was based on a poll taken between November 7 and December 20 last year in 335 communities and shows that 2.208.937 Chileans are poor, equivalent to 13.7% of the population. This number represents a dramatic 44.5% fall from 1990 and five points since 2003. But of this figure, 1.692.199 people live in poverty (10.5%) and 516.738 are indigent which is equivalent to 3.2%. The report from the Planning Ministry also shows that for the first time rural poverty is lower than urban poverty 12.3% against 14%. The line of urban poverty in 2006 means a family group has a monthly income above 95 US dollars and rural poverty, 47 US dollars. The report shows that between 2003 and 2006, poverty dropped in all of Chile's regions but in metropolitan Santiago the rate was 2.5% slower. Regions Eight and Nine remain the areas with highest percentage of Chileans living in poverty, over 20% and regions Twelve and Two, are the regions with the lesser percentage, 6.3 and 7.3%, respectively. The indigenous population according to the poll continues to have higher levels of poverty and indigence that the rest of Chileans, almost 19%. However, the gap between the indigenous and non indigenous population has consistently dropped since 1996, (12.4%) to 5.7% in 2006. Regarding age and gender, the group between 0 and 3 years, has a poverty percentage of 21.9% but drops dramatically at the other end, the over 60, with 7.5%. In the last sixteen years poverty is more intense among women than men, 14.3% and 13%.