Chile CASEN 2024: Regional poverty gaps up to 8.8 points expose limits of national averages

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Chile's CASEN 2024 survey reveals stark regional disparities in poverty, healthcare coverage, and education that are masked by national averages. La Araucanía recorded an extreme poverty rate of 13.0%, nearly three times higher than Magallanes at 4.2%, while FONASA health coverage varied by 15.2 percentage points between La Araucanía and the Metropolitan Region. Education gaps were equally pronounced, with completed higher education rates differing by 14.5 percentage points between the Metropolitan Region and Maule. A reproducible analysis conducted in Julia cross-validated all findings against official BIDAT figures, with observed differences below three millionths of a percentage point. The author warns that social policies designed around national averages risk misallocating resources by ignoring statistically significant regional differences.

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