Line graph showing the percentage of Latin Americans living below the poverty line, indicating a significant decline over 30 years | Sources: OurWorldInData, Latinometrics
Extreme Poverty in LatAm is Being Eradicated

The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living under $1.90 per day. In the past 30 years, Latin American countries have seen the share of their citizens living in extreme poverty decline from 14% to 3.75% of the total population.

Even though world organizations continue to categorize all LatAm countries as developing, it is undeniable that the quality of life of the poorest has been positively transformed in the last few decades, in some cases even to a larger degree than developed nations.

For example, as of 2019, Chile had only 0.28% of its population living under extreme poverty, well below countries like Sweden, Australia, and the USA. Speaking of Chile, Santiago is nicknamed the ‘Chilecon Valley,’ and it’s the continent’s top country for entrepreneurship.

Editor’s note: This chart is from our very first edition of Latinometrics, back in November 2021. It’s agruably the one that “started it all,” as our first chart to go viral on Reddit.