In short: Both answers are true, because they measure different things. The World Bank classes Guatemala as an upper-middle-income economy: its national income per person was US$6,360 in 2025, inside the World Bank’s US$4,636 to US$14,375 band. But Guatemala’s own 2023 living-conditions survey (ENCOVI) counts 56.0% of people as poor and 16.2% as extremely poor, and the World Bank puts 47.3% below its US$8.30-a-day line. UNDP ranks Guatemala 137th of 193 on human development. An average income that clears a threshold can sit on top of a majority that is poor; this page shows the numbers side by side.
Sources: World Bank country classification, World Development Indicators (release of 13 July 2026), Poverty & Equity Brief for Guatemala (October 2025) and Macro Poverty Outlook; INE’s ENCOVI 2023 results as reported by the government news agency AGN; UNDP Human Development Report 2025. All read 3 October 2026.
The four numbers
| Measure | Guatemala | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Bank income group (fiscal year 2027) | Upper-middle income | GNI per capita, Atlas method, in 2025 | World Bank country classification |
| GNI per capita, Atlas method, 2025 | US$6,360 | National income divided by population | World Bank WDI |
| National poverty rate, 2023 | 56.0% (extreme poverty 16.2%) | Share of people whose consumption is below Guatemala’s poverty lines | INE, ENCOVI 2023 |
| Below US$8.30 a day (2021 PPP), 2023 | 47.3% | Share of people below the World Bank’s upper-middle-income poverty line | World Bank Poverty & Equity Brief, Oct 2025 |
| Human Development Index, 2023 | 0.662, rank 137 of 193 (medium human development) | Health, schooling and income combined | UNDP Human Development Report 2025 |
What “upper-middle income” means
The World Bank’s thresholds for its current fiscal year (2027), applied to each country’s 2025 GNI per capita:
| Group | GNI per capita (Atlas method, 2025) |
|---|---|
| Low income | US$1,175 or less |
| Lower-middle income | US$1,176 to US$4,635 |
| Upper-middle income | US$4,636 to US$14,375 |
| High income | More than US$14,375 |
Guatemala’s US$6,360 is US$1,724 above the upper-middle floor (our subtraction). The World Bank’s series shows the figure rising from US$2,690 in 2010 to US$4,800 in 2021 and US$6,360 in 2025.
The group label describes the economy’s average, not its households. The World Bank’s own Macro Poverty Outlook for Guatemala says the country “remains one of the poorest countries in the region, with 47.3 percent of the population living below US$8.30/day in 2023 (2021 PPPs).”
What Guatemala’s own survey says
INE, Guatemala’s national statistics institute, ran the Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Vida (ENCOVI) from 6 August to 27 December 2023 and presented the poverty results on 21 August 2024. As reported by AGN, the government news agency:
| ENCOVI 2023 | Share of the population |
|---|---|
| Poor (total) | 56.0% |
| of which extreme poverty | 16.2% |
| of which non-extreme poverty | 39.8% |
| Not poor | 44% |
| Rural population in poverty | 66.3% |
| Urban population in poverty | 46.6% |
INE’s two lines work like this: the extreme-poverty line is the minimum cost of food needs; the total poverty line adds a minimum of non-food goods and services such as education, health and transport. Someone in non-extreme poverty covers the food minimum but not the rest.
The World Bank’s October 2025 brief quotes the same national rate (56.0% in 2023, down from 59.2% in 2014) and gives about 9.8 million people in poverty in 2023. It rounds the rural rate to 66.4%; we show INE’s own 66.3% in the table.
By department
| Highest poverty (ENCOVI 2023) | Lowest poverty | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Alta Verapaz | 90.3% | Guatemala | 21.6% |
| Quiché | 86.4% | Sacatepéquez | 38.7% |
| Huehuetenango | 81.2% | Escuintla | 39.1% |
| Baja Verapaz | 80.2% | ||
| Jalapa | 80.0% |
The department of Guatemala (which contains Guatemala City) and Sacatepéquez (Antigua) have the two lowest rates.
The World Bank’s international poverty lines
The World Bank measures poverty against three international lines in 2021 purchasing-power dollars. For Guatemala in 2023, from its October 2025 Poverty & Equity Brief:
| Line (per person per day, 2021 PPP) | Share of Guatemalans below it, 2023 |
|---|---|
| US$3.00 (extreme poverty) | 9.7% |
| US$4.20 (lower-middle-income line) | 17.6% |
| US$8.30 (upper-middle-income line) | 47.3% |
| National poverty line | 56.0% |
The brief notes that Guatemala’s average national poverty line “is close to the upper-middle income poverty line (US$8.3), so incidence under the international and national lines is similar.” It also puts the Gini index at 45.2 (2023) and says informality is “nearly 60 percent of workers in 2023”.
Two more figures from the World Bank’s Macro Poverty Outlook: chronic malnutrition affected 46% of children under five in 2024, which it calls the highest rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, and remittances rose from 11% to 19% of GDP between 2004 and 2024.
Human development: UNDP’s ranking
UNDP’s Human Development Report 2025 (data for 2023) ranks Guatemala 137th of 193 countries with an HDI of 0.662, in the medium human development group.
| Component (2023) | Guatemala |
|---|---|
| Life expectancy at birth | 72.6 years |
| Expected years of schooling | 10.7 |
| Mean years of schooling | 5.8 |
| GNI per capita (2021 PPP $) | 12,459 |
The GNI figure here is in purchasing-power dollars, which is why it differs from the World Bank’s US$6,360 Atlas figure.
How Guatemala compares in the region
| Country | GNI per capita, Atlas, 2025 (US$) | Below US$8.30/day (latest year) | HDI rank 2023 (of 193) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panama | 19,140 | 19.8% (2024) | 59 |
| Costa Rica | 17,930 | 9.7% (2025) | 62 |
| Mexico | 13,730 | 21.4% (2024) | 81 |
| Belize | 7,530 | 19.7% (2018) | 115 |
| Guatemala | 6,360 | 47.3% (2023) | 137 |
| El Salvador | 5,410 | 29.9% (2023) | 132 |
| Honduras | 3,270 | 49.8% (2024) | 139 |
| Nicaragua | 2,850 | not returned by the World Bank API | 123 |
GNI and poverty from the World Bank API (WDI release of 13 July 2026); HDI from UNDP’s 2025 report. The poverty years differ by country; each is the latest the World Bank returned.
On these three measures Guatemala is not the poorest country in Central America: El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua have lower national income per person, and Honduras has a higher US$8.30 poverty rate and a lower HDI rank. Guatemala’s distinctive combination is a middle-ranking average income with one of the region’s highest poverty rates; the World Bank’s brief calls its US$8.30 rate “the second highest poverty rate in LAC” in 2023.
What this means if you are visiting or moving
- Prices and incomes are two different questions. For what daily life costs, see our cost of living in Guatemala and the monthly budget to live in Guatemala.
- The country is not uniform. A Guatemala City or Antigua base sits in the departments with the lowest poverty rates in ENCOVI 2023; Alta Verapaz, Quiché and Huehuetenango are where the highest rates are.
- How many people these percentages apply to: see Guatemala’s population, INE’s projection beside the World Bank’s estimate.
Related
- Is Guatemala Hispanic or Latino? — how the US Census classifies Guatemalans and how Guatemala’s census counts its peoples
- Languages of Guatemala — the 2018 census on Spanish and the 22 Mayan languages
Sources (read 3 October 2026)
- World Bank, World Bank Country and Lending Groups (datahelpdesk.worldbank.org), fiscal year 2027 thresholds and group lists
- World Bank, World Development Indicators via api.worldbank.org: NY.GNP.PCAP.CD (GNI per capita, Atlas method), SI.POV.UMIC (poverty at US$8.30), SI.POV.DDAY (poverty at US$3.00); last updated 13 July 2026
- World Bank, Poverty & Equity Brief: Guatemala, October 2025
- World Bank, Macro Poverty Outlook: Guatemala
- AGN (Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias), INE presenta resultados de la Encovi 2023 en Guatemala, 21 August 2024. INE’s own site did not load from our connection on 3 October 2026.
- UNDP, Human Development Report 2025, Statistical Annex Table 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Guatemala a poor country?
It depends on the measure. The World Bank’s income classification for fiscal year 2027 puts Guatemala in the upper-middle-income group: its GNI per capita (Atlas method) was US$6,360 in 2025, inside the $4,636 to $14,375 band. Guatemala’s own 2023 living-conditions survey (ENCOVI, by INE) counts 56.0% of the population as poor and 16.2% as extremely poor. The World Bank’s October 2025 poverty brief puts 47.3% of people below its US$8.30-a-day line in 2023.
Is Guatemala a third world country?
Third world is not a category in the two classifications this page uses. The World Bank sorts economies into low, lower-middle, upper-middle and high income, and lists Guatemala as upper-middle income. UNDP’s Human Development Report 2025 sorts countries into very high, high, medium and low human development, and places Guatemala in the medium group at rank 137 of 193.
Is Guatemala the poorest country in Central America?
Not on the three measures we checked. World Bank GNI per capita for 2025 was US$6,360 for Guatemala against US$5,410 for El Salvador, US$3,270 for Honduras and US$2,850 for Nicaragua. Honduras has a higher share of people below US$8.30 a day (49.8% in 2024 against Guatemala’s 47.3% in 2023) and a lower UNDP human development rank (139 against 137). The World Bank’s October 2025 brief calls Guatemala’s US$8.30 poverty rate the second highest in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Why is Guatemala poor if it is classed as upper-middle income?
The income classification uses an average: total national income divided by the population. A poverty rate counts how many people live below a line. Guatemala’s average is in the upper-middle band, while the World Bank’s brief puts its Gini index at 45.2 in 2023 and says Guatemala appears trapped in a vicious cycle of persistently high poverty and inequality, low productivity and high labour-market informality. Poverty is also uneven: ENCOVI 2023 counts 90.3% poor in Alta Verapaz and 21.6% in the department of Guatemala.
Is Guatemala a low-income country?
No. The World Bank’s low-income threshold for fiscal year 2027 is a GNI per capita of US$1,175 or less in 2025. Guatemala’s figure for 2025 was US$6,360, which places it in the upper-middle-income group.
