Social security coverage in Latin America

Abstract

For almost a decade, the debate on social security in the region has revolved around the diversification of risks, macroeconomic effects of the systems, and private sector participation in their management. Now, however, many analysts are starting to focus on the issue of coverage. The debate on social security coverage has been complicated by a lack of consistent quantitative information that would allow for rigorous comparisons of different countries and different periods. Although many recently published articles and opinions include statistics, their sources and methodology are not always clear. For that reason, the publication of coverage information in a significant number of the region's countries, calculated simultaneously and based on similar data, makes an important contribution to clarifying the debate and developing specific policy proposals. This document is a first step in that direction. It presents coverage indicators and their determinants for seventeen countries of Latin America, based on Household Surveys. The information is not perfect, given problems of comparability among instruments and systems, as well as difficulties for precisely capturing the characteristics sought in the survey data. Consequently, the authors consider this document to be a first step in a collective information evaluation process, understanding that the results may be adjusted in future reviews.