Dane revealed this Wednesday, April 20, the results of the National Quality of Life Survey for 2021. The document reveals information about Colombia's households and the general welfare of the inhabitants of the different regions of the country.
According to the statistics department, the survey aims to show an x-ray of how Colombians live and the changes that have occurred as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.
El Dane found that the possibility of owning their own housing - which is fully paid for - has fallen since 2019, because while in that year 42 per cent of households reported having their own home, by 2021, only 35 per cent had it. By 2021, the 17.1 million households were grouped into 17 million homes.
The survey also showed that in 2020 - the height of the pandemic - Colombians regrouped in their families as a method of saving, as the number of people who claimed to live at home increased. But by 2021 many returned to living in apartments, as the figure rose from 36.9% in 2020 to 38.1% in 2021.
Likewise, this housing rearrangement affected homeownership, which, as already said, registered a noticeable decline in 2021 when compared to 2019, that is, before the entry of the pandemic.
Juan Daniel Oviedo, director of Dane, explained that the decline in own housing is due to the fact that many had to sell their property in order to live during the pandemic.
“A good way to cushion the revenue shock was with the liquidation of that residential asset,” said the official.
Another economic impact of the pandemic was the loss of jobs by the head of the household and the delay in the payment of rent or installments of housing credits. To cushion the blow of these problems, households had to acquire debts, extend payment periods or even reduce food.
The survey showed that in 2020 the number of households claiming to have had to lower their food expenditure reached 15%, but by 2021 it rose to 34.4%, which is also due to the rise in input prices.
Due to the harsh economic situation, Colombians had to look for new ways to receive income. According to Oviedo, one in 10 homes reports economic activity within the home. But this proportion reaches two out of 10 in departments such as Guaviare, Huila and Vichada.
The survey showed that almost all of these activities are related to agriculture (42.6%) and then trade (34%). It also revealed that between 2020 and 2021 there was growth in home businesses related to industrial activities.
The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in people aged 5 and over in the country shows high levels of use of mobile phones (90.9%) and internet (73.0%) and low computer use (31.8%), a category that includes desktops, laptops and tablets.
Compared to the responses of heads of households and spouses to whom CVD 2021 applied on whether they consider themselves poor or not, 46.7% consider themselves poor nationally, in the headwaters this index falls to 39.7% and in populated and dispersed rural centers it rises to 70.3%.
Finally, in 2021, 58.8% of children between 0 and 4 years of age spent most of the time during the week in the care of their father or mother at home, while 25.6% were attended in person or virtually in care facilities such as community homes, kindergartens, child development or schools.
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