MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Dramatic drop in Magallanes Region poverty levels

The overall poverty rate for Magallanes Region stands at 6.3%

Although Magallanes Region in the extreme south of Chile has witnessed a significant drop in poverty and indigence rates, there are still some worrisome pockets, according to the latest Socioeconomic Characterization Poll, CASEN, released last week.

The poll shows that there are no poor people living in the communities of San Gregorio and Primavera, but in Puerto Natales, capital of the province of Ultima Esperanza, the index jumps to 10.7%, 8.9% described as poor and 1.9% indigent. The overall poverty rate for Magallanes Region stands at 6.3%, with 2.5% described as indigent. These numbers compare favorably with the rest of Chile. While in Magallanes poverty between 2003 and 2006 dropped 6% in the rest of Chile the percentage was five points. In 2006, 13.7% of the Chilean population was described as living in poverty, which is made up of 516.738 (3.2%) indigent and 1.692.199 non indigent poor. However in Magallanes the poll showed that the 6.3% poverty figure was made up of 2.5% indigent equivalent to 3.617 people while non indigent poor totaled 5.489 people, 3.8%. According to Casen a person in Chile is poor if his income is below 47.099 pesos (approx 90 US dollars) per month in urban areas, and less than 31.756 (61 US dollars) in rural areas. Indigents in urban areas receive less than 23.549 pesos (45 US dollars) per month and 18.146 pesos (34 US dollars) in rural areas. Looking back to 1990 when Chile became a formal democracy, in the sixteen years since then, poverty has dropped from 30% to 3.8% in 2006. In numbers this means that in 1990, Magallanes region had 11.191 people living in indigence conditions, which has now fallen to 3.617, equivalent to 67.7% less. Non indigent poor people decreased from 27.702 in 1990 to 5.489 in 2006, which is 80.2% less.