Poverty in Nicaragua

Nicaragua is a very poor country and it has changed a lot throughout the years, specially in 1998 during Hurricane Mitch. Poverty declined in Nicaragua from 1993-2001, but more than 2/3 of people in rural areas continue to live in poverty. In Managua, which is the capital, on June 2, 2004, In spite of drought, the onset of a coffee crisis, and the devastation of Hurricane Mitch, overall poverty in Nicaragua fell from 50.3 percent in 1993 to 45.8 percent in 2001. According to the World Bank's Nicaragua Poverty Assessment, however, extreme poverty in Nicaragua continues to be overwhelmingly rural, where more than 25 percent of the population struggles to survive on less than one dollar per day. Poverty changed between 1998 and 2001 varied substantially by region. Poverty fell by over 10 percent in the Pacific Rural area, but more modest reductions took place in the Atlantic Rural, Pacific Urban, and Central Urban areas. Also, Poverty increased in Managua by 1.7 percent and extreme poverty increased by 5.7 percent in the coffee-dependent Central Rural region, which exemplifies the high vulnerability of specific populations to commodity shocks.