In the first three months of this year poverty skyrocketed again in the City of Buenos Aires, that was nourished by the decline of the middle class. Poverty increased by 1,083,000 people compared to 928,000 in the fourth quarter of 2023. There are 155,000 new poor people, which largely came from the middle class that was reduced by 100,000 people.
Meanwhile, child poverty affected 44% of children under 17 years of age (301,000). A year ago, 37.4% of children and adolescents (0-17 years) lived in households in poverty.
According to the Report of the Statistics and Census Directorate of the City of Buenos Aires, Poverty reached 35.1% versus 30.1 at the end of 2023with a very strong drop of the middle class, which fell from 40.7% to 37.4%.
The impoverishment of the Buenos Aires middle class has been a constant in recent years. The middle class has fallen by almost 18 percentage points compared to its best record, which was the third quarter of 2017. At that time it totaled 1,691,000 people, while in the first quarter of 2024 it fell to 1,254,000. In 2015, when the statistical series began, The middle class reached 51.9% and now it is 37.4%.
While, destitution reached 15.3% of people (472,000 people) when in the fourth quarter of 2023 it was 12.2%. The destitution almost doubles its incidence compared to the same period of the previous year, both in households (10.8% vs. 5.5%) and in individuals (15.3% vs. 8.4%).
“Poverty – and in particular destitution – reaches the highest incidences of the series started in 2015 for the first quarter. In a context of declining activity and employment rates, the expansion of labour and non-labour income was not enough to offset the price increases. Consequently, the living conditions of the City’s households deteriorated across the board, affecting access to basic baskets and reducing the weight of the middle and well-off sectors”says the Buenos Aires Report.
In turn, “households in poverty together with those in vulnerable situations make up the aggregate of households in vulnerable conditions, which in the period represent 41.7% of the total. 46.4% of the population of the City resides there.” There are more poor and vulnerable than the middle class.
The decline in well-being is also observed in the middle classes. Some 155,000 households and 364,000 people who were in this stratum a year ago have fallen in the income pyramid (a decrease of almost 12 points).
The Report details that some groups are more impacted by poverty than others.
