Editing Economy of Venezuela (section)

=== Socioeconomic indicators ===
Like most Latin American countries, Venezuela has an unequal distribution of wealth. Although distribution improved when the surplus of rural labor started to diminish and the educational system improved in the middle of the 20th century,<ref>{{cite book|author=Baten, Jörg |title=A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present.|date=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=150|isbn=9781107507180}}</ref> equality is far from coinciding with western standards. The rich tend to be very rich and the poor very poor. In 1970, the poorest fifth of the population had 3% of national income while the wealthiest fifth had 54%.<ref name="World Bank 1980, p. 156">World Bank. "Table 24." ''World Development Report''. 1980. pp. 156–57.</ref> For comparison, the United Kingdom 1973 figures were 6.3% and 38.8% and the United States in 1972, 4.5% and 42.8%.<ref name="World Bank 1980, p. 156"/> Inequality declined during the early 2000s as the government spent heavily on social programs to improve the well-being of the poor. The economic crisis since 2013 has greatly increased inequality since the heavily subsidized services that the poor rely on, such as public hospitals and food distribution, have experienced severe shortages of essential imported goods. Hyperinflation has destroyed the value of savings, plunging many formerly stable, middle-class Venezuelans into extreme poverty. Conversely, the very wealthy are more likely to have access to overseas financial services allowing them to store their wealth in stable foreign currencies and escape the catastrophic collapse of the Venezuelan currency.

The more recent [[income distribution]] data available is for distribution per capita, not per household. The two are not strictly comparable because poor households tend to have more members than rich households, thus the per household data tends to show less inequality than the per capita data. The table below shows the available per capita data for recent years from the World Bank.
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Personal income distribution
|-
!rowspan=2|Year
!colspan=6|Share of personal income (%) received by:
!rowspan=2|GINI index
|-
!Poorest fifth
!2nd fifth
!3rd fifth
!4th fifth
!Wealthiest fifth
!Wealthiest 10%
|-
|1987
|4.7
|9.2
|14.0
|21.5
|50.6
|34.2
|~43.42
|-
|1995
|4.3
|8.8
|13.8
|21.3
|51.8
|35.6
|46.8
|-
|1996
|3.7
|8.4
|13.6
|21.2
|53.1
|37.0
|48.8
|-
|2000
|4.7
|9.4
|14.5
|22.1
|45.4
|29.9
|42.0
|-
|2004
|3.5
|—
|12.9
|—
|54.8
|—
|45.59
|-
|2007
|5.1
|—
|14.2
|—
|47.7
|—
|42.37
|-
|-
|2010
|5.7
|—
|14.9
|—
|44.8
|—
|38.98
|-
|2011
|5.7
|—
|15.9
|—
|44.8
|—
|39.02
|-
|2013
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|44.8
|-
|2015
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|—
|46.9
|-
| colspan="8" style="text-align:left; font-size:88%; padding-left:1em;" |
Note that personal (per capita) income distribution, given in this table, is not exactly comparable with household income distribution, given in the previous table, because poor households tend to have more members.

; Sources
: 1987 data: 1991 ''World Development Report'', Table 30, pp. 262–63.
: 1995 data: 1998 ''World Development Report'', Table 2.8, p. 70.
: 1996 data: 2000/2001 ''World Development Report'', Table 5, pp. 282–83.
: 2000 data: 2006 ''World Development Indicators'', Table 2.8.

All of the above publications are by the World Bank.

: 2004 data: ''Instituto Nacional de Estadística'', p. 8<ref name="ine.gov.ve">[http://www.ine.gov.ve/documentos/Boletines_Electronicos/Estadisticas_Sociales_y_Ambientales/Sintesis_Estadistica_de_Pobreza_e_Indicadores_de_Desigualdad/pdf/BoletinPobreza.pdf Instituto Nacional de Estadística] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113152602/http://www.ine.gov.ve/documentos/Boletines_Electronicos/Estadisticas_Sociales_y_Ambientales/Sintesis_Estadistica_de_Pobreza_e_Indicadores_de_Desigualdad/pdf/BoletinPobreza.pdf|date=13 November 2012}}[https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ine.gov.ve%2Fdocumentos%2FBoletines_Electronicos%2FEstadisticas_Sociales_y_Ambientales%2FSintesis_Estadistica_de_Pobreza_e_Indicadores_de_Desigualdad%2Fpdf%2FBoletinPobreza.pdf&embedded=true&chrome=false&dov=1]</ref>
: 2007 data: ''Instituto Nacional de Estadística'', p. 8<ref name="ine.gov.ve" />
: 2010 data: ''Instituto Nacional de Estadística'', p. 8<ref name="ine.gov.ve" />
: 2011 data: ''Instituto Nacional de Estadística'', p. 8<ref name="ine.gov.ve" />
: 2013 data: ''[[United Nations Development Programme]]''<ref>{{cite web |title=Income Gini coefficient |url=http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/income-gini-coefficient |website=[[United Nations Development Programme]] |publisher=[[United Nations]] |access-date=21 September 2015}}</ref>
:2015 data: ''[[United Nations Development Programme]]''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2016_human_development_report.pdf|title=Human Development Report 2016|website=[[UNDP]]}}</ref>
|}
Poverty in Venezuela increased during the 1980s and early 1990s, but it decreased greatly in the mid to late 1990s. The decreasing trend continued through the Chávez presidency, with the exception of the troubled years 2002 and 2003. Under the Bolivarian government, poverty decreased initially when Venezuela acquired oil funds, though poverty began to increase to its highest level in decades in the 2010s.<ref>{{cite news|title=Venezuela: a nation in a state|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/02/graphics-political-and-economic-guide-venezuela|access-date=5 March 2016|agency=[[The Economist]]|date=18 February 2016}}</ref> Throughout its modern history, inequality and poverty rates have wildly fluctuated from year to year, owing to the government's dependence on unreliable oil revenues which send the economy into alternating periods of rapid growth and catastrophic recession. The poverty rate decreased from 55% to 27% in the 5-year period between 2003 and 2008, only to then skyrocket to over 80% in the 5 years between 2012 and 2017.

The table below shows the percentage of people and the percentage of households whose income is below a poverty line which is equal to the price of a market basket of necessities such as food.<ref>[http://www.ine.gov.ve/fichastecnicas/idh/fichaindicalineapobreza.htm "Ficha Técnicas de Línea de Pobreza por Ingreso."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090529062832/http://www.ine.gov.ve/fichastecnicas/idh/fichaindicalineapobreza.htm|date=29 May 2009}} Estadísticas Sociales y Ambientales. El Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas. Retrieved 4 September 2010. ''The Instituto Nacional de Estadística describes their method for compiling these statistics.''</ref>
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Percentage of people and households with income below national poverty line
|-
!Year
|1989
|1997
|1998
|1999
|2000
|2001
|2002
|2003
|2004
|2005
|2006
|2007
|2008
|2009
|2010
|2011
|2012
|2013
|2014
|2015
|2016
|2017
|-
!Households
|–
|48.1
|43.9
|42.0
|40.4
|39.0
|48.6
|55.1
|47.0
|37.9
|30.6
|28.5
|27.5
|26.7
|26.9
|26.5
|21.1
|27.3
|48.4
|73.0
|81.8
|87.0
|-
!People
|31.3
|54.5
|50.4
|48.7
|46.3
|45.4
|55.4
|62.1
|53.9
|43.7
|36.3
|33.6
|32.6
|31.8
|32.5
|31.6
|25.4
|32.1
|–
|–
|–
|–
|-
|colspan=23 style="font-size:88%"|
; Sources:
: World Bank, 1997 ''World Development Indicators'', p. 52;
: [http://www.ine.gov.ve/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=104&Itemid=45# Venezuela, Instituto Nacional de Estadística, ''Pobreza por línea de ingreso, 1er semestre 1997 – 2do semestre 2013''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120727181241/http://www.ine.gov.ve/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=104&Itemid=45 |date=27 July 2012 }}. Retrieved December 2014.
:[https://www.ucab.edu.ve/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/02/ENCOVI-2017-presentación-para-difundir-.pdf ENCOVI – Encuesta sobre Condiciones de Vida en Venezuela Febrero 2018] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401062035/https://www.ucab.edu.ve/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/02/ENCOVI-2017-presentaci%C3%B3n-para-difundir-.pdf |date=1 April 2019 }}
; Note
: Datum is from the World Bank and as far as we know is a whole year average (1989)
: End of year data provided by Instituto Nacional de Estadística (1997–2013)
: ENCOVI used due to lack of government-provided statistics (2014–2017)
|}

[[File:INE Venezuela poverty rate 1990 to 2013.png|thumb|Venezuela's [[extreme poverty]] rate from 1990 to 2013<br />Source: INE<ref>{{cite web|title=Pobreza|url=http://www.ine.gov.ve/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=104&Itemid=45#|website=instituto nacional de estadistica|access-date=1 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Venezuela Achieves Millennium Goals|url=http://venezuela-us.org/es/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/venezuela-achieves-millennium-goals-2.pdf|website=Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela|access-date=1 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903112831/http://venezuela-us.org/es/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/venezuela-achieves-millennium-goals-2.pdf|archive-date=3 September 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref><br />Note: interim presidents excluded and one-year delay of data transferred during presidential term changes due to new policies, inaugurations and so on]]
{|class="sortable wikitable"
|+Venezuela economic indicators (2017)<ref name="CIAWFVE"/>
|-bgcolor=#efefef
!indicator || %
|-
|align="left"|Real GDP growth || −14.0%
|-
|align="left"|Inflation || 1.087.5%
|-
|align="left"|Gross national saving (% of GDP) || 12.1%
|-
|}
{|class="sortable wikitable"
|+Foreign trade<ref name="CIAWFVE"/>
|-bgcolor=#efefef
!Leading markets 2013 || % of total || Leading suppliers || % of total
|-
|align="left"|United States || 39.1 || United States || 31.7
|-
|align="left"|China || 14.3 || China || 16.8
|-
|align="left"|India || 12.0|| Brazil || 9.1
|-
|align="left"|Netherlands Antilles || 7.8 || Colombia || 4.8
|-
|}
{|class="sortable wikitable"
|+Foreign trade<ref name="Factsheet">{{cite news|title=Factsheet |url=http://www.economist.com/countries/Venezuela/profile.cfm?folder=Profile-FactSheet |access-date=17 February 2009 |newspaper=The Economist|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203180437/http://www.economist.com/countries/Venezuela/profile.cfm?folder=Profile-FactSheet |archive-date=3 February 2009 }}</ref>
|-bgcolor=#efefef
!Major exports ||  % of total || Major imports || % of total
|-
|align="left"|Oil and gas || 90.4 || Raw materials and intermediate goods || 44.5
|-
|align="left"|Other || 9.6 || Consumer goods || 24.5
|-
|align="left"| || || Capital goods || 31.0
|-
|}