At the close of the year, there was a modest improvement in income inequality in Argentina; however, the disparity between the wealthiest and the most impoverished continues to be significant. According to recent, the wealthiest 10 percent of the population earns approximately 13 times the income of the poorest 10 percent nationwide. While the bureau’s ‘Evolution of the distribution of income’ report, based on the Permanent Survey of Households (EPH, in its Spanish acronym), indicated a scenario of relative stability in levels of income inequality, notable disparities persist based on gender and the status of formal employment among citizens.
Argentina’s Gini coefficient – an internationally recognised statistical measure of economic inequality, typically measuring income or wealth distribution across a population on a scale from 0 to 1 – stood at 0.427 for the final quarter of 2025, a slight decrease from the 0.43 recorded for the corresponding period in 2024. INDEC’s analysis indicates that the income disparity between the top and bottom tenths of the population has stabilized at a ratio of 13 times, based on the mean per capita family income, consistent with the figures from the same quarter in 2024. The aggregate income for the entire reference population amounted to just over 19.1 trillion pesos, indicating a nominal increase of 44.9 percent compared to the same quarter in 2024. The report indicates that 62.6 percent of the population received some form of income during the analyzed period, with an individual average amounting to 1,011,863 pesos (approximately US$730 at the official exchange rate).
When examining individual earnings, the average income for the bottom 40% of the population stood at 351,028 pesos, while the top 20% averaged 2,476,247 pesos. The middle 40% recorded an average income of 940,586 pesos. The average per capita income for the total population, approximately 30 million individuals, attained 635,996 pesos, whereas the mean per capita income stood at 450,000 pesos. INDEC’s report indicates that Argentina’s labor market persists in exhibiting significant disparities. The average salary for wage-earners making pension contributions stood at 1,321,353 pesos, in stark contrast to the significantly lower average of 651,484 pesos for those in informal employment. Gender inequality continues to persist. Males reported an average income of 1,191,364 pesos, compared to 838,336 pesos for females. The gender income gap in primary employment stands at 29.6 percent, favoring men.
An analysis of the earnings structure of Argentine families indicates that 79.2 percent of household income is derived from employment, while the remaining 20.8 percent is sourced from alternative means such as pensions, subsidies, and rents. Nonetheless, the reliance of households in the lowest-income decile on external assistance is significant: non-employment earnings account for 67.7 percent of their total income, in contrast to just 12.3 percent for the highest decile. On average, relationships of dependence reveal 122 unemployed individuals for every 100 employed across the 31 urban agglomerations surveyed. The strain is significantly more pronounced in at-risk sectors, where in the lowest decile, the ratio escalates to 284 unemployed individuals for every 100 employed.