Mexico’s Middle-Class Growth Leads Latin America

Mexico City, Mexico — President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that from 2018 to 2024, Mexico was the country in Latin America where the middle class grew the most, according to World Bank data. The middle class increased by 12.4% while poverty decreased by 13.6%, results attributed to the social and economic policies of the Fourth Transformation governments.

“This is about shared prosperity, because there can be economic growth, but if that generation only benefits a few, there is no distribution and it doesn’t reach those who have the least. That’s why the focus of ‘for the good of all, first the poor’ is prosperity, social justice, development, and well-being,” explained Sheinbaum Pardo.

During the Pueblo Morning Press Conference on December 19, the president explained that Mexico leads the increase in middle class in the region with 12.4%, followed by Brazil with 7%, Costa Rica with 6.8%, Paraguay with 4.1%, Honduras with 1.6%, Uruguay with -0.05%, Ecuador with -1.9%, Peru with -4.4%, and Argentina with -6.3%.

Additionally, the president highlighted that in 2022, for the first time in the country’s history, there were more people in the middle class than in poverty, a trend that has continued. She assured that the objective of her government is to guarantee that more families escape poverty.

Similarly, Sheinbaum Pardo emphasized that one factor contributing to this change is the increase in the minimum wage, which went from 123 pesos in 2018 to 278.80 pesos in 2025, representing a 154% increase in purchasing power.

“That is for the good of all, first the poor. That is essentially the transformation of the country: today in Mexico there are more families that recognize themselves as middle class, meaning they escaped poverty, […] a higher percentage of families in this sector than people in poverty,” she stated.

In this same context, the coordinator of presidential advisors, Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, indicated that according to World Bank data, poverty went from 35.3% in 2020 to 21.7% in 2024, while the middle class went from 27.2% to 39.6% during the same period.

The official explained that these data align with those presented by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) and the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), which show that from 2018 to 2024, poverty went from 41.9% to 29.6%. Additionally, “non-poor and non-vulnerable” people (middle class and the wealthiest) increased from 29.3% to 42.3%.

Finally, Jesús Ramírez added that from 2018 to 2024, the middle-class population went from 27.2% to 39.6% in 2024.