INDEC released this week the poverty and indigence figures corresponding to the second half of 2025, drawn from the Permanent Household Survey (EPH). The data marked a significant pullback from the 2024 peak. Income poverty reached 31.8% of the people surveyed across Argentina's urban metropolitan areas, down from 38.1% in the second half of 2024 and 41.7% in the first half of that year, when inflation was running at the fastest pace in two decades. Indigence stood at 6.9%, also a sharp decline from the 8.2% reported in the previous semester.
Income, wages, and the composition of the rebound
The main driver of the decline was the recovery of real wages. According to the EPH, the average per capita household income for households with employed heads grew 14% in real terms during the second half of 2025, in a context of decelerating inflation — the CPI for the semester was 11.2% accumulated, against 32% in the first half of 2024. The improvement was concentrated in households with formally employed heads, while real income for households with informally employed or self-employed heads rose at a much slower pace, widening the within-labor-market gap. To dig into the historical employment and wages series, you can visit our employment and wages dashboard.
The regional map: the north still lags
The poverty map confirms a structural asymmetry: metropolitan areas in the Northeast and Northwest of Argentina continue to register rates significantly above the national average. Greater Resistencia (44.1%), Concordia (41.3%), and Santiago del Estero–La Banda (39.8%) lead the ranking, while at the other end of the spectrum sit Patagonian areas: Ushuaia–Río Grande (18.9%), Comodoro Rivadavia–Rada Tilly (21.2%), and Río Gallegos (22.7%). Greater Buenos Aires, which accounts for around one-third of the country's urban population, posted a rate of 33.4%, slightly above the national average. The EPH dashboard allows for a detailed look at these regional differences and their evolution over the past two decades.
The political and economic reading of the data is mixed. On the one hand, a 6.3-point drop in a single semester is the steepest reduction in poverty since 2003, validating the idea that disinflation — when accompanied by some baseline of economic activity — quickly improves the material conditions of the most exposed households. On the other hand, the starting point was the worst reading in two decades, and the current poverty rate (31.8%) remains higher than the 2016–2019 average (29.1%) and well above the 2017 historical low (25.7%).
Looking into 2026, consolidating the decline will depend on three central variables: that disinflation persists, that formal employment continues to recover, and that social transfers maintain their adjustment above inflation. The structural challenge — reducing informality and narrowing the regional gap — remains pending business.
Sources: INDEC – Permanent Household Survey (EPH), INDEC – Incidence of poverty and indigence.
