In its most recent Statistical Yearbook, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal) presented Colombia as one of the countries with the greatest extreme poverty in the region.
More specifically, according to the study, 15% of the Colombian population lives in extreme poverty, thus being the nation with the third highest percentage in this sectiononly being surpassed by Honduras (20%), Nicaragua (18.3%) and Guatemala (15.4%).
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On the other hand, ECLAC showed in its report that poverty in the region was reduced from 30.5% to 29.8%; however, he also warns that the situation is more fragile than it seems and that the social and economic situation in Latin America continues to be worrisome.
“In the social field, the Yearbook data shows a slight recovery in some indicators after the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, poverty in Latin America reached 32.3% of the population, including 12.9% of the population in a situation of extreme poverty. These figures represent a slight drop compared to the previous year, of 0.5 percentage points in poverty and 0.2 points in extreme poverty.”, explained ECLAC in the report.
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Other points in which Colombia cracked
The country was also the fifth with the highest unemployment rate in the region, with 13.4% of the population able to work in Colombian territory. This percentage is four points above the average estimated by ECLAC.
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In fact, in terms of employability, according to the report, 54% of Colombians able to work are employed. However, this rate is below the employability average for the region.
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