Poverty and Income Distribution in Latin America: The Story of the 1980s.

This report presents an update of poverty and income distribution statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean and examines the trends in these statistics during the 1980s. The document also provides a series of nonmonetary social indicators to help complete the profile of living conditions in the region. Latin America has historically exhibited a high degree of income inequality relative to other regions of the world, and the results of this study indicate that this continues to be true. Although social indicators generally improved during the 1980s, intracountry statistical breakdowns show high levels of variability across several criteria, including mothers' and women's educational levels, urban and rural settings, and ethnicity and income groups.