This was stated by Lourdes Molina Escalante, economist of the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies (Icefi), in an opinion article in the newspaper El Mundo: ‘El Salvador according to official statistics’, in which she contrasts the information published by the National Statistics and Census Office (Onec).
This entity publishes the Multipurpose Household Survey (EHPM) which provides information on the difficult living conditions faced by Salvadorans.
In terms of education, the expert says that nine out of every 100 people do not know how to read or write; this situation is more frequent in rural areas, where 15 out of 100 are illiterate.
Although most of the population has access to basic education, a quarter of children between 4 and 6 years old do not have access to kindergarten education.
In the area of health, he added, the results of the EHPM confirm the relevance of the public sector in guaranteeing the right to health of Salvadorans.
Seven out of every 10 people who became ill and consulted someone did so in the public health system. The survey, in the labor field, for 2023 pointed out unemployment as a challenge that persists, for that year the unemployment rate at the national level was 5.2 percent, but in some departments such as Cuscatlan, Morazan and Usulutan it exceeds 6.2.
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