Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEDLAC)
The SEDLAC web site contains statistics on poverty and other distributional and social variables from all Latin American and several Caribbean (LAC) countries. All statistics are computed from microdata from major household surveys carried out in these countries. Statistics are updated periodically.
One of SEDLAC’s objectives is to ensure comparability of statistics between the variety of household surveys across countries and time, by using similar definitions of variables in each country/year and applying consistent methods of data processing. SEDLAC thus allows users to monitor trends in poverty and other distributional and social indicators in the LAC region.
The SEDLAC database includes information from over 300 household surveys carried out in 24 LAC countries: Argentina, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. The database mainly covers the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s although information is also available for previous decades in a few countries.
The database is divided into 12 sections: household surveys, income, poverty, inequality, demographics, education, employment, housing, infrastructure, durable goods and services, aggregate welfare and pro-poor growth. Each section contains an Excel file with multiple sheets. Each of these sheets shows a data table with specific information for each of all Latin American countries (or those for which data is available).
Household income is used by the SEDLAC project as the main welfare proxy because few countries in Latin America and the Caribbean routinely implement household surveys with consumption or expenditure questionnaires, while all countries include questions on individual and family income. While most countries have expenditure surveys, they are usually carried out in long intervals (in many cases, every 10 years), so they are not suitable for monitoring poverty, inequality and other relevant social indicators.
Most of the poverty statistics in the SEDLAC database are on income poverty, defined as the inability to achieve a certain minimum income level, known as the poverty line. Poverty estimates are based on (i) international poverty lines, and (ii) relative poverty lines (50% of median income). The international poverty lines referred to are US$ 1.9 a day at 2011 PPP, US$ 2.5 and US$ 4 a day per person at 2005 PPP.
Besides income poverty an indicator of poverty, similar to the UBN (Unsatisfied Basic Needs) indicator is used based on at least one of the following conditions: (i) more than 4 persons per room; (ii) the household lives in “poor” places (e.g. street, shanty towns); (iii) the dwelling is made of low-quality materials; (iv) the dwelling does not have access to water; (v) the dwelling does not have an hygienic restroom; (vi) there are children aged 7 to 11 not attending school; (vii) the household head has not completed primary school; (viii) the household head does not have a high-school degree, and there are more than 4 household members for each income earner.