Pobreza, vulnerabilidad y desigualdades horizontales en la población adulta uruguaya

We assess the evolution of multidimensional poverty and vulnerability among the Uruguayan adult population between 2006 and 2018. Based on the results of a previous consultation process framed in a technical cooperation agreement between Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración (Universidad de la República) and the Ministry of Social Development, we consider deprivation in the following domains: education; health care; labour force status and social protection; housing; social cohesion and discrimination; and life satisfaction/leisure-work balance. We study the evolution of individual indicators and multidimensional indices, and analyze the evolution of horizontal inequalities in deprivation by sex, ethnic-racial descent, region and age group. We conduct two different analyses using data from official household surveys (Encuestas Continuas de Hogares), and a public opinion survey (Latinobarometro) to account for deprivation in the domains of social cohesion and subjective well-being . Although our findings indicate that multidimensional poverty fell (31%) between 2006 and 2018, it decreased a a considerably lower pace than monetary poverty (78%). Furthermore, our results reveal a trade-off between improvements in the subset of dimensions reflecting deprivation in terms of individual well-being and worsened outcomes in the dimensions that refer to more collective functionings, such as social cohesion. Regarding multidimensional vulnerability, in 2018, only 54% of the population aged 18 and over is not at risk of experiencing poverty in a worsened economic scenario. Meanwhile, horizontal inequalities remained unchanged or even widened in the period covered in this study.