Colombians think they are wealthier than they were five years ago,
according to a survey released by the National Administrative
Department of Statistics.
The 2008 Quality of Life Survey released Wednesday surveyed 15 thousand Colombian households. It found that 48% of households surveyed think they live in poverty, compared to 67% five years ago.
The survey measures perceptions, not objective data. The majority of those polled said their situation had improved in terms of health cover, living expenses, acquisition of consumer goods and access to public services.
Jorge Iván González, ex director of the United Nations Development Program in Bogotá told El País that people’s judgement can be very subjective and as a result “sometimes in surveys Colombia appears to be the happiest country in the world.” He attirbuted people feeling less poor to factors such as the improvement of public services and the fall of the U.S dollar.
Eduardo Sarmiento, Dean of Economy at the Colombian School of Engineering, told the same newspaper that the survey was too general to be accurate. He added that while poverty in Colombia had decreased between 2003 to 2006, the situation since then is unclear and “it’s most likely that it has stayed the same or become worse”.