Healthcare Access Remains Uneven Across Mexico: INEGI

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI)’s first multidimensional poverty measurement indicates that access to healthcare remains a major challenge in Mexico. While some states have made notable progress, others have experienced setbacks, highlighting persistent disparities between urban and rural areas despite overall improvement.

According to INEGI, in 2024, 29.6% of Mexico’s population, about three in 10 people, were classified as living in multidimensional poverty. This status applies to individuals whose income is insufficient to cover a basic food basket, goods, and necessary services, while also lacking access to at least one social right.

Healthcare access emerged as a critical factor in the findings. Nationally, 44.5 million people experienced a lack of access to health services in 2024. The share of the population facing this barrier declined from 39.1% in 2022 to 34.2% in 2024. Of those affected, 30.6 million lived in urban areas and 13.9 million in rural zones.

Reductions were recorded in 27 states, with Oaxaca showing the most significant drop, from 65.7% to 43.9%, followed by Guerrero, from 52.7% to 38.9%, and Tabasco, from 44.8% to 35.1%. However, five states registered increases in healthcare access deprivation, including Baja California Sur, which went from 17.3% to 19.6%, and Colima, from 21.9% to 24.0%.

INEGI’s report responds to the need for reliable and comparable information, both over time and across regions, on the state of the country’s social development. This information is necessary to design, implement, and monitor public policy. 

This is INEGI’s first poverty measurement report following the dissolution of the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL) and the transfer of its functions to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in July 2025. Under this change, the responsibility for measuring poverty, conducting comprehensive evaluations of social development policy, and issuing recommendations now lies with INEGI.

To preserve the continuity and comparability of the biennial multidimensional poverty measurement, which began in 2008, INEGI announced that it will maintain CONEVAL’s methodology. INEGI says that it is beginning this new stage with the firm objective of ensuring that the information it produces remains a fundamental public good for the development of evidence-based public policies.

CONEVAL was one of several autonomous bodies recently dissolved by the Mexican government, alongside the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), the Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE), the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT), and the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information, and Personal Data Protection (INAI), reports MBN.