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Poverty in Argentina officially fell to 28.2% in the second half of 2025, the lowest rate in seven years, but analysts question the measurement methodology, pointing out that wages have fallen in real terms, that unemployment rose from 6.1% to 7.5%, and that the number of people living on the streets of Buenos Aires increased by 57% since the beginning of the Milei government.
According to a report from DW Español, poverty in Argentina reached 28.2% in the second half of 2025, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC). The number represents a decrease of 3.4 percentage points compared to the first half and consolidates a trend of poverty reduction after the peak of over 50% recorded in early 2024, when the currency devaluation promoted by the government of Javier Milei brutally eroded the purchasing power of Argentines. The government celebrated the data as proof that its economic program is working.
But the official poverty numbers tell only part of the story. Experts warn that the methodology for measuring poverty was changed at the end of 2024, that wages have fallen in real terms since the beginning of the Milei government, that unemployment rose from 6.1% to 7.5%, and that the number of people living on the streets of Buenos Aires grew by 57%. While the president posts on social media that “facts outweigh narratives,” lines of hundreds of people form weekly in popular dining halls in neighborhoods like Villa Fiorito, the same place where Diego Maradona was born.
From 50% to 28%: how poverty in Argentina fell so quickly in official numbers
The drop in poverty in the official data has one main explanation: the slowdown in inflation. The government attributes the reduction in poverty to economic growth, falling food prices, and the maintenance of direct subsidies, especially the so-called universal child allowance.
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The logic is that, with inflation more controlled, the purchasing power of the poorest Argentines has stopped deteriorating at the accelerated pace of 2024.
The peak of poverty above 50% occurred shortly after Milei took office, when the government promoted an aggressive currency devaluation that caused a spike in prices and pushed millions of Argentines below the poverty line all at once.
The decline in poverty since then largely reflects a partial normalization after that shock and not necessarily a structural improvement in the quality of life of the population. It is the difference between “improving” and “stopping getting worse.”
The methodological change that makes poverty seem lower than it is
At the end of 2024, the Argentine Institute of Statistics implemented a methodological change in how it measures poverty.
The new methodology began to include certain state aids in the income count of families, which, by definition, reduces the number of people classified as poor, even if the real situation of those families has not changed. Analysts specialized in poverty consider that this alteration exaggerates the drop in the indices.
Moreover, the official measurement of poverty in Argentina is based on comparing family income with a consumption basket whose parameters are over two decades old.
Critics point out that neither the poverty statistics nor the inflation statistics take into account the weight of increases in public service rates, energy, and rent—expenses that have grown substantially during the Milei government and that compress the real budget of families. In other words: poverty may be lower on paper, but life has not become cheaper.
Unemployment rising, wages falling, and 57% more people on the streets: what the poverty data do not show
While poverty is falling in the official numbers, other indicators point in the opposite direction. Unemployment in Argentina rose from 6.1% to 7.5%, wages have fallen in real terms when adjusted for inflation, consumption is declining, industry is contracting, and the sectors that are growing are generating few jobs.
Milei’s austerity measures have particularly hit public employees, who have lost jobs on a large scale.
The most revealing data may be this: according to official statistics from the city of Buenos Aires, the number of people living on the streets has increased by 57% since the beginning of the Milei government.
In the popular dining halls, volunteers report that demand has grown by about 300% and that people who had never before resorted to this type of assistance are now waiting in line for hours to secure a plate of food. The contradiction between the official drop in poverty and the visible increase in misery on the streets is at the center of the economic debate in Argentina.
In the house where Maradona was born, hundreds line up every week for a plate of food
In Villa Fiorito, a poor neighborhood in Buenos Aires where football legend Diego Maradona was born, hundreds of people line up every week to receive a plate of food in dining halls run by volunteers.
The owner of the house where Maradona was born makes his yard available for humanitarian workers to cook for the neighborhood residents—a scene that has become a symbol of the contradiction between the official poverty numbers and the reality on the streets.
María Torres, a volunteer who prepares stews on site, reported that demand has exploded: “Lately, poverty has increased a lot, because we see more and more people who would never have come to a dining hall before.”
According to her, there are people who arrive and wait hours for a plate of food, many of them newly unemployed, who, embarrassed, appear for the first time in assistance lines. “It’s something that has never happened to us before,” she summarized.
Poverty has fallen on paper, but Argentina still does not know if it has really improved
The poverty rate of 28.2% is the lowest in seven years in Argentina, that is a fact. But it is also a fact that the methodology has changed, that wages have fallen in real terms, that unemployment has risen, that consumption and industry have shrunk, and that 57% more people are living on the streets of Buenos Aires since Milei took office. The question is not whether poverty has fallen or not on paper, but whether the lives of Argentines have actually improved.
Milei says he is making Argentina great again. The opposition says that the statistics mask reality.
And in the lines at the dining halls in Villa Fiorito, the people waiting hours for a plate of food are probably not consulting INDEC data to know whether they are officially poor or not.
What do you think: is the drop in poverty in Argentina real or is it the result of changes in the way of measuring? And can Milei’s austerity model work in the long term? Leave your opinion in the comments.
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