Argentina’s poverty rate rose to 32.3 percent in the first half of 2026 from 28.2 percent, marking its first increase in two years, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec). The survey of 31 urban agglomerations showed that 9.7 million people lived below the poverty line across an evaluated population within a total national count of approximately 47 million persons.
Poverty and indigence advance
The share of households in poverty reached 24.4 percent, representing 2.5 million homes across the country during the first six months of the year. The increase interrupts a downward trend that had followed the 52.9 percent poverty rate recorded in 2024.
Extreme poverty also worsened. Indigence reached 7.5 percent. Indec defines indigence as lacking access to a food basket capable of meeting daily energy and protein needs, an threshold that applied to 2.2 million people in the first half of 2026 compared with 1.9 million people, or 6.3 percent, in the second half of 2025. Among households, the share considered indigent rose to 5.6 percent, covering 600,000 households, up from 4.8 percent and 500,000 households in the prior half-year period.
Labor strains and public ratings
The rise in poverty follows broader economic restructuring under President Javier Milei. While annual inflation decelerated to 30 percent after peaking at 280 percent, 30,000 companies closed since Milei took power, and unemployment climbed to 7.9 percent, its highest level since 2021, with nearly half of the economically active population working in the informal sector.
Unemployment hit 7.9 percent. Political support shifted alongside the worsening conditions. In a poll by AtlasIntel, disapproval of Milei reached 58 percent across the total population while his approval stood at 38.1 percent.
Among respondents earning up to $650 a month, disapproval rose to 70 percent in September from 57 percent one year prior, while approval within that low-income bracket fell to 30 percent from 37 percent over the same period.
Source: National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec)
