The average income of Costa Rican households increased by ¢ 100 thousand in the last year, as revealed by the most recent National Household Survey (Enaho) 2021, carried out by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) and published this past Thursday, October 21st.This reflects an increase compared to the income of 2020, however, it still does not exceed the average income recorded in 2019.
Average household income:
2019: ¢ 1,016,358
2020: ¢ 891,934
2021: ¢ 991,568
Income
“This year, income from state subsidies and scholarships statistically decreased by 60.3%, mainly due to the elimination of the Protect Bonus, which was delivered exclusively in 2020,” they explained in the INEC.
Poverty
The new Household Survey reveals a reduction in the number of households living in poverty when compared to the data for 2020; however, the percentage is still higher when compared to the 2019 records.
Total poverty in Costa Rica:
2019: 21.0%
2020: 26.2%
2021: 23.0%
The percentage of poverty registered in the survey corresponds to a total of 383,500 households in poverty, of which 6.3 percent are in extreme poverty, “which implies that 104.5 households are in that situation, 0.7 percentage points less with respect to the previous year, in absolute terms it means 8.4 thousand households less than in 2020. Despite this drop, the extreme poverty level in 2021 is higher than in 2019 (5.8%)”, explained the INEC.
If we talk about the number of people, the incidence of poverty in 2020 it was 26.2 percent, which represented 1,351,700 poor people, of which, with this year’s measurement, a reduction is established that indicates that there are 177,600 fewer people in poverty.
In the case of people in extreme poverty, a total of 318,500 are currently unable to meet their basic food and non-food needs.The national household survey was conducted in the previous July.
