[7] The city of Buenos Aires proper, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego Provinces benefit from the nation's lowest poverty rates (around 7 to 14%, depending on the measurement).
[12] The socio-economic crisis at the time prompted the enactment of the Program for Unemployed Heads of Households in early 2002, and at its height in 2003, around 2 million beneficiaries received debit cards worth 150 pesos (US$50) for part-time work;[13] by 2010, the plan's impact on employment had become negligible.
[14] Birth control among the poor, especially access to contraceptives, has long been discouraged by a succession of Argentine governments.
Poverty in Argentina increased dramatically in 2024 as Javier Milei deregulated large parts of the Argentinian economy, removing price controls, subsidies, and cutting tens of thousands of government jobs in an attempt to stabilize the Argentine peso.
Food inflation was particularity hard hit, with most soup kitchens being unable to maintain adequate supply.
[17][19][20] Bolivia was one of the poorest countries in South America, but between 2006 and 2014, GDP per capita doubled and the extreme poverty rate declined from 38 to 18%.
In recent years, the government has instituted new micro-economic regulations that have led to poverty reduction by increasing and supporting new opportunities to improve the lives of rural populations.
[25] Their poverty reduction strategy focuses on three components: rural development, social and infrastructural services and decentralization.
[26] This country feels[clarification needed] that if they put their main focus on these particular issues it has a good chance at dramatically reducing its rural-area poverty.
It has been successful with "high growth rates, low inflation, macroeconomic stability, reduction of external debt and poverty and significant advances in social and development indicators".
The poor people in rural areas are at greater risks for health illness because they lack access to clean water and sanitation.
Over the last few years Peru is showing a little improvement with the social welfare system and the consumption poverty rates.
[40] Fallout from an earlier financial crisis in neighboring Argentina helped lead to a resurgence in poverty, to 27%, by 2006,[41] though by 2008, a reduction of the rate to around 24% was measured, while 2.2% of the population remained in absolute poverty; as in many other nations, the poor in Uruguay suffer from far higher rates of unemployment than the population at large (27%, compared to an average of 7.5%).
[42] The rate of absolute poverty in Uruguay, measured as part of the UN Human Development Index, was 3.0% in 2009, and was the lowest in Latin America.
[30] As of 2011[update], recent income official statistics show that the total poverty rate in the country stands at 31.9%.