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Over Half of Venezuela Lives in Multidimensional Poverty, Survey Finds
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Culture & Society

Over Half of Venezuela Lives in Multidimensional Poverty, Survey Finds

From ABC Color · (5m ago) Spanish Critical tone

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • Over 55% of Venezuela's population lived in "multidimensional poverty" in 2025, according to a survey by the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB).
  • Monetary poverty affected 68.5% of households, and extreme poverty fell to 31.7%, though significant challenges remain in public services, housing, and education.
  • The Venezuelan economy experienced eight years of recession after 2014, losing 80% of its GDP, with the minimum wage remaining critically low.

A recent study by the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB) reveals that a staggering 55% of Venezuelans endured "multidimensional poverty" in 2025. This metric, encompassing income, employment, housing, services, education, and health, indicates a persistent crisis despite a slight decrease from the previous year's 57%. The situation remains dire, with poverty levels still 16 points higher than in 2014, when the economic collapse began.

More than half of the population in Venezuela lived in "multidimensional poverty" during 2025.

— Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Vida (Encovi)Presenting the key finding on poverty levels.

While the survey shows a reduction in monetary poverty to 68.5% and extreme poverty to 31.7%, the coordinator of the Encovi study, Anitza Freitez, cautions against interpreting these figures as signs of genuine improvement. She emphasizes that critical dimensions of well-being, such as public services, housing conditions, and access to education, have not improved, underscoring the depth of the ongoing crisis. The stark reality is that one in three households struggles to afford basic food necessities.

This is still 16 points above the registered in 2014, when the economic crisis in the Caribbean country skyrocketed.

— Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Vida (Encovi)Highlighting the long-term impact of the economic crisis.

Venezuela's economic landscape has been devastated since 2014, marked by eight consecutive years of recession that wiped out 80% of its GDP. A hyperinflationary spiral from 2017 to 2021 further crippled the nation. Although the government has reported single-digit growth since then, the monthly minimum wage has been frozen at 130 bolivars (approximately $0.27 USD) since 2022. Even with recent bonuses, workers find these earnings insufficient to meet basic needs, highlighting the persistent economic hardship faced by the population.

To say there are improvements because poverty decreased would be to underestimate the study.

— Anitza FreitezCautioning against overstating the significance of poverty reduction.
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Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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