Economic Mobility and the Rise of the Latin American Middle Class

After decades of stagnation, the size of the middle class in Latin America and the Caribbean recently expanded by 50 percent - from 103 million people in 2003 to 152 million (or 30 percent of the continent’s population) in 2009. This report discusses the relevant concepts and documents the facts about mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past two decades, both within and between generations. In addition, it investigates the rise of the Latin American middle class over the past 10–15 years and explores the size, nature, and composition of this pivotal new social group. More speculatively, it also asks how the rising middle class may reshape the region’s social contract.