Poverty in South America

Poverty in South America is high in most countries. All of the countries in South America are greatly affected by poverty to some extent. From 1999 to 2010, poverty dropped from 43.8% to 31.8%. The countries that have the highest rates are Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela. All of these countries are trying to reduce poverty, with varying degrees of effort and success. However, in recent years most South American countries have experienced great economic decline. Thanks to this improvement in the economy, action is being taken by most South American countries to reduce poverty and improve the life quality of the people. New infrastructure is being built and more housing is being provided. Education is also a major concern, and the governments are spending millions of dollars in funding schools.

There are many different reasons why a greater proportion of a country's population may be in poverty than in others, and there are a variety of factors that may explain poverty in South America. Each country has their own internal problems, which leads to their high percentage of poverty, and an overview of poverty in each of these countries in South America (except Chile) follows in the section below.

The relatively low poverty rate is shared with the country's neighbors to the west and east, Chile and Uruguay; but contrasts with most of Argentina's northern neighbors (Bolivia and Paraguay), and has resulted in a wave of immigration from these latter to Argentina since the 1960s, mainly to Buenos Aires and its environs. Poverty rates, measured by Argentine parameters, are higher than those reported by the UN, however. "Structural poverty", based on substandard housing, affected 17.7% of the population at the 2001 Census. Income poverty is also higher, and unlike structural poverty (which has gradually declined over the decades), has varied sharply between Argentina's economic cycles. This proportion rose sharply, for instance, during the 1989 currency crisis (from 26% to 47%), while the early success of the Convertibility Plan cut the rate to 16% by 1994; income poverty rose again in the ensuing years, to 35% by 2001, and reached 54% during the depths of the crisis in 2002.

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