Colombia’s war crimes tribunal to press criminal charges...
Colombia jails US citizen on femicide charges
Colombia preparing tropical paradise for tourism after 500...
Hacktivists leak 178,000 documents from Colombia’s military
Colombia’s sentenced for exterminating political party
Colombia’s capital Bogota awarded for failing crime policy
OAS urges Colombia to release people arrested over...
Colombia’s war crimes tribunal hears notorious former warlord
Colombia’s GDP and GNI
Panama arrests US citizen suspected in Colombia of...
  • About
  • Support
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion
(Image credit: Primicia Diario)
Economy

Poverty in Colombia increases after steady 15-year drop

by Adriaan Alsema March 22, 2017

While President Juan Manuel Santos praised a drop in Colombia’s GINI coefficient, the country’s statistics agency on Wednesday released statistics showing that poverty in 2016 went up for the first time since 2002.

According to statistics agency DANE, the country’s poverty rate went from 27.8% to 28%, the first time poverty rose since 2002. Extreme poverty increased even more, going from 7.9% in 2015 to 8.5% in 2016.

The renewed increase in poverty was mainly due to a relatively stark increase in urban poverty. Poverty on the countryside did drop from 40.3% to 38.6%.


Colombia’s poverty and inequality statistics | Fact sheet


Particularly the capital Bogota, a metropolis of 7 million people, saw a significant increase in poverty. The rate there went from 9.1% to 10.6%. Poverty in Medellin and Cali, respectively the country’s second and third largest cities, continued dropping.

Santos was clearly not alarmed by the increase in poverty, celebrating that “we have met our goal.” In a presentation and on Twitter, he stressed that 14 million Colombians were living in poverty when he took office in 2010 and that this had dropped to 5.1 million in 2016.

The country’s national GINI coefficient behaved almost opposite to the poverty rate and continued its drop from 52.2 in 2015 to 51.7 last year.

“The social gap is closing,” Santos celebrated on Twitter.

GINI indexpoverty

Trending

  • Panama arrests US citizen suspected in Colombia of murdering fiancé

  • Colombia’s capital Bogota awarded for failing crime policy

  • Colombia’s war crimes tribunal hears notorious former warlord

For patrons

Downloads for patrons

Related articles

  • Colombia struggling to prevent hunger crisis

  • War in Ukraine causing surge in poverty in Colombia: UN

  • Colombia’s poverty rate down to 39.3% as economy recovers from pandemic

  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Rss

@2008-2019 - Colombia Reports. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Digitale Zaken and Parrolabs


Back To Top
Colombia News | Colombia Reports
  • News
    • General
    • Analysis
    • War and peace
    • Elections
    • Economy
    • Culture
    • Sports
    • Science and Tech
  • Travel
    • General
    • Bogota
    • Medellin
    • Cali
    • Cartagena
    • Antioquia
    • Caribbean
    • Pacific
    • Coffee region
    • Amazon
    • Southwest Colombia
    • Northeast Colombia
    • Central Colombia
  • Data
    • Economy
    • Crime and security
    • War and peace
    • Development
    • Cities
    • Regions
    • Provinces
  • Profiles
    • Organized crime
    • Politics
    • Armed conflict
    • Economy
    • Sports
  • Lite
  • Opinion