Population, territory and sustainable development

59
Figure IV.6
LATIN AMERICA: POOR AND INDIGENT RURAL POPULATION, AROUND 2000 AND 2010
(Percentage of total population)
A. Poverty B. Indigence
100
100
90
90
80
80
70
70
60
60
50
50
40
40
30
30
20
20
10
10
0
0
Bolivia
(Plur. State of)
Brasil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Dominican Rep.
Uruguay
Latin America
Bolivia
(Plur. State of)
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Dominican Rep.
Uruguay
Latin America
Around 2000 Around 2010
Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), on the basis of special tabulations of data from
household surveys conducted in the relevant countries.
Rodríguez and Meneses group the countries studied in three major categories by percentage of
poverty in all rural households (see figure IV.7). The first category corresponds to those countries in
which less than 20% of households are poor: Uruguay (6.4%), Chile (9.9%) and Costa Rica (14.7%). In
the second, between 20% and 50% are poor: Brazil (31.8%), Panama (35.5%), Mexico (37,0%), the
Dominican Republic (45.1%) and Ecuador (45.3%). In the third, over 50% of households are poor:
Paraguay (57.1%), Guatemala (59.7%), Plurinational State of Bolivia (68.3%) and Honduras (74.4%).
Rodríguez and Meneses (2011) thus identify four subgroups of rural economies based on the
percentage of rural employment in agriculture and poverty rates among all rural households (see
figure IV.8). The first subgroup comprises countries in which over 50% of the rural population is
employed in agriculture and over 50% of rural households are poor. The countries in this subgroup are
characterized as having traditional agrarian rural economies: Honduras, Guatemala, Paraguay and the
Plurinational State of Bolivia. The second subgroup is composed of countries in which over 50% of the
rural workforce is employed in agriculture and less than 20% of rural households are poor. In these rural
economies agriculture predominates and poverty is low, and they are characterized by non-traditional
agriculture. This is the case of Chile and Uruguay. In the third subgroup less than 30% of rural
employment is in agriculture and the poverty rate among rural households is around 20%. This category
has only one country, Costa Rica, which has a diversified rural economy. Lastly, the fourth subgroup
includes countries with intermediate levels of rural poverty, between 20% and 50%, and a highly varying
percentage of rural employment in agriculture. These are countries whose rural economies are in
transition: Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico and Panama.