Almost half the residents of Mexico’s three poorest states lack access to at least one basic service in their homes, according to the results of a national survey.
Basic services include running water, electricity, sewerage systems and chimneys in households where wood or charcoal is used for cooking.
In Chiapas — the Mexican state with the highest levels of poverty — 48.6% of residents didn’t have access to at least one basic service in their homes in 2024, according to the results of a survey on “multidimensional poverty” that was conducted by the national statistics agency INEGI.
In Guerrero, 47.4% of residents lacked access to at least one basic service in their homes, the survey found, while the figure in Oaxaca was 46.7%.
Guerrero and Oaxaca have the second and third highest levels of poverty in Mexico, according to the INEGI poverty report published last week. In Chiapas, 66% of residents were living in “multidimensional” poverty in 2024, while the rates in Guerrero and Oaxaca were 58.1% and 51.6%, respectively.
Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca are the only states in Mexico where more than 40% of residents lacked access to at least one basic service in their households.
Four states had rates higher than 25%:
- Tabasco, 33.8%.
- Yucatán, 29.6%.
- Campeche, 28.8%.
- Veracruz, 28.5%.
The other 25 federal entities had rates below 20%, ranging from 18.8% in San Luis Potosí and Puebla to 1.9% in Nuevo León and Coahuila.
In Mexico City, only 2.4% of residents lacked access to at least one basic service in their homes in 2024, the INEGI survey found.
How many people lack basic services in their homes?
Running water
INEGI reported that approximately 4.5 million people didn’t have running water in their homes in 2024. While the figure is high, it declined around 51% compared to the 9.2 million people who didn’t have piped water in their homes in 2022.
In 2024, 3.5% of the Mexican population didn’t have running water in their homes, according to INEGI.
Sewerage
In 2024, some 6.4 million people lived in homes that were not connected to sewerage, according to the results of the most recent survey. That figure increased 0.5% compared to 2022.
In 2024, 4.9% of Mexicans lived in homes that weren’t connected to sewerage, according to INEGI.
Chimneys
The most common basic service that Mexicans lacked in 2024 was a chimney. Approximately 12.6 million who cook with wood or charcoal didn’t have a chimney in their homes, according to INEGI. That figure declined 13.4% compared to 2022.
In 2024, the number of Mexicans who cooked with wood or charcoal but didn’t have chimneys in their homes represented 9.7% of the population.
Electricity
Approximately 300,000 Mexicans didn’t have electricity in their homes in 2024. That figure fell 26% compared to 2022.
In 2024, around 0.2% of the Mexican population didn’t have electricity in their homes, INEGI reported.
With reports from La Jornada
