The most recent radiography of well -being in the country, revealed this morning of April 24 by the DANE in the National Survey of Quality of Life (ECV) 2024, confirms the trend of Deep changes in the way Colombians live.
The Colombian common home is no longer as numerous as before: Today, the average size is 2.86 people, a decrease sustained since 2019, when it was 3.10.
This transformation is more evident in urban areas, but has also reached the countryside, where higher averages are still maintained (2.99 people per household compared to 2.82 in headwaters).
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In parallel, The female presence in the head of the home grows: 46.5% of households are led by women, a figure that rises to 49% in main cities.
In departments such as La Guajira, Magdalena and Arauca, more than half of the homes have female leadership. And in 68.8% of these homes, the Chief woman has no partner.
“The results also reveal that, in most households with female headquarters, household heads do not have a partner or spouse (68.8%)which contrasts with homes with male headquarters, where less than a third of the bosses (31.4%) do not live as a couple, ”reads the report.
More Internet, less perceived poverty
One of the most notorious advances is in connectivity. In 2024, 65.6% of households had Internet access, which represents an increase of 1.7 points compared to 2023.
Connectivity is the new welfare thermometer. But the country is still split in two: While in cities the connection reaches 72.5%, in rural areas it barely reaches 41.9%.
The jump has been greater in the municipal headwaters, where coverage reaches 72.5%. However, regional gaps persist: while Bogotá exceeds 82%, in Vichada it barely reaches 15.4%.
“The comparison of the percentage of households with Internet access according to the sex of the chief of the home in the last two years shows that, because the growth of connectivity was greater in homes with male headquarters,” said the DANE.
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The perception of poverty also improved: Only 40.4% of the heads of household or their spouses were considered poor, a significant decline from 47.3% of the previous year.
The improvement was more evident in the cities, where it fell 7.4 percentage points, and In households led by women, with a reduction of 7.2 points.
Housing: upward rental, down deficit
For the third consecutive year, the rent exceeds the property. In addition, the rent continues to be the predominant mode of possession: 40.4% of households live under this modality, compared to 39.6% that inhabits their own housing.
“According to the ECV of 2024, 39.6% of households lived in their own home, a percentage that includes both those who had already paid it (36%) and those who were paying it (3.5%)”, Read in the report.
In addition, thirdly, they are locatedUienes occupy homes without payment with permission from the owner (14%)followed by the occupants in fact (3.8%) and those who live in collective property (2.3%).
The heads of household, in particular, face greater difficulties in acquiring housing: While 41% of households with man chief are owning, only 37.9% of those led by women are.
Nevertheless, There is a light of hope in decreased housing deficit, which fell to 26.8%, thanks to improvements in the qualitative component (overcrowding problems, inappropriate materials, etc.).
For its part, The qualitative deficit fell from 22.1% to 20%and the quantitative remained at 6.8%.
Bogotá remains the city with the best housing situation, with only 7.2% of household houses.
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The typology of households also changed. In 2024, 51.6% are biparental (mother and father with or without children), but this proportion has been falling (it was 52.5% in 2023). Unipersonal households grew to represent 19.8% (an increase of 0.7 percentage points), and single -parent are already 24.3%.
Putumayo stands out with the lowest proportion of biparental homes (40.7%), which gives an account of a family structure very different from that of Vaupés, where such households represents 67.5%.
On the other hand, on a scale of 0 to 10, Colombians described their life in general with 8.2. Other dimensions also improved: health (8.0), free time (7.7), security (7.6), work (7.4) and income (6.9). Women tend to feel less satisfied than men, but differences are small.
