WILLEMSTAD – More than one in three households in Curaçao is now classified as vulnerable to poverty, according to the latest Multidimensional Poverty Index published by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
The report shows that the share of households with no significant deprivation fell sharply from 63 percent in 2011 to just over 51 percent in 2023. At the same time, households considered vulnerable to multidimensional poverty increased from 29.6 percent to 37.7 percent.
CBS defines vulnerable households as those experiencing early or moderate deprivations that place them at heightened risk of falling into full multidimensional poverty if economic or social conditions deteriorate.
While the proportion of households in extreme multidimensional poverty declined slightly after 2017, CBS stresses that the expansion of the vulnerable group represents a structural warning sign for policymakers, as it indicates growing social fragility across broad segments of the population.