Argentina

Abstract

Poverty in urban areas in Argentina increased from 21.5% in 2016 to 34.4% in 2020, surpassing the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) average of 26.3%, partly owing to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Extreme poverty in urban areas also increased in that period from 2.9% to 6.3% but remains below the LAC average (8.7%). Inequality remained relatively stable. The Gini index increased from 42.0 in 2016 to 42.3 in 2020, remaining below the LAC average (45.3). Regarding environmental indicators, in 2019, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita were 8.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO2e), higher than the averages for LAC (6.3) and slightly below for countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (9.1). That year, the share of population exposed to air pollution levels that pose risks to human health (PM2.5 at more than 10 µg/m3) was 98.5%, higher than 95.4% for LAC and 61.0% for the OECD. The marine protected area of Argentina accounted for 11.8% of its territorial waters in 2021, compared to 7.3% for LAC and 18.6% for the OECD. On the fiscal side, environmentally related tax revenue was 1.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, above LAC (1.0%) and below the OECD (2.1%). Total tax revenues as a percentage of GDP (29.4%) remains higher than the LAC average (21.9%) but below the OECD average (33.5%).