Poverty

President Luis Guillermo Solís said a new poverty index, created by Oxford University, puts people over statistics. The index reported that 21.8 percent of Costa Rican households are considered poor, totaling 1.26 million people.

Poverty in Costa Rica dropped slightly over the past year, but extreme poverty continues to rise -- to 7.2 percent in 2015, according to the latest census institute survey.

Extreme poverty will this year fall to less than 10 percent of the global population for the first time, although there is still "great concern" for millions in Africa, a World Bank report said Sunday.

Eighty students from across Costa Rica participated in a photo course designed to explore the theme of poverty in everyday life. The photographs will be on display at the National Museum this weekend until Sunday, Sept. 27.

The world "witnessed an historic reduction in global poverty" over the first decade of the century, with those considered "middle income" nearly doubling, according to the Pew Research Center. But Costa Rica's middle class — and that of most other Central American countries — shrunk over the same time period as a percentage of those countries' total population.

President Solís' plan aims to unify all 30 of the government's current aid programs into a single welfare system called the “Unique System of Beneficiaries.”

Poverty and extreme poverty have climbed to a four-year high in Costa Rica – 22.4 percent – according to the 2014 National Statistics and Census Institute's National Household Survey.

Costa Rica will begin using the multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI) developed by the English university in the hope of more effectively leveraging the country’s social assistance programs to tackle extreme poverty.