---
title: "Poorest Cities in Paraguay: What the New Poverty Map Shows"
url: https://33travels.com/poorest-cities-in-paraguay/
author: "Raj Anand"
published: 2026-11-09
updated: 2026-11-09
place: "Paraguay"
---

# Poorest Cities in Paraguay: What the New Poverty Map Shows

## TLDR

- Paraguay’s official data ranks districts, not cities, and the poorest one is **Puerto Pinasco**, where 82.2% of households are multidimensionally poor.
- The top five are all in the Chaco, the dry western half of the country. Boquerón and Bahía Negra, also in the west, bring the Chaco-side count to seven of the top ten. The other three are in the eastern north and southeast.
- A second measure, monetary poverty, points to different places. Its highest rate belongs to **Paso Barreto** in Concepción, at 53.3%.
- The richest districts, all in or beside Asunción, score under 3%.

## Contents

- [Why “city” really means “district”](#why-city-really-means-district)
- [Two ways to measure poverty](#two-ways-to-measure-poverty)
- [The poorest cities in Paraguay, ranked](#the-poorest-cities-in-paraguay-ranked)
- [The Chaco districts](#the-chaco-districts)
- [The eastern districts](#the-eastern-districts)
- [The monetary poverty picture](#the-monetary-poverty-picture)
- [The other end of the scale](#the-other-end-of-the-scale)
- [FAQ](#faq)

## Why “city” really means “district”

Search for the poorest cities in Paraguay and you won’t find a ranking of cities. Paraguay’s statistics office, the INE, reports by *distrito*, and Paraguay has 263 of them. A district is a municipality: a town center plus all the countryside around it. Puerto Pinasco the district is a river port and a lot of Chaco scrub.

So “poorest city” here means “poorest district”. That distinction matters when you read the numbers. A district rate describes everyone who lives inside the boundary, including ranch hands, indigenous communities and farm families who may be a hundred kilometers from the town hall.

![Aerial view of Cote-lai, Chaco, featuring a train and small town layout on a sunny day.](https://33travels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/chaco-landscape.jpeg)

## Two ways to measure poverty

The INE published its first district-level multidimensional poverty index (IPM) in July 2026, covering all 263 districts. It is built from the 2022 Census, the same census that counted indigenous communities separately, and it uses 13 indicators across four equally weighted dimensions: work and social security, housing and services, environment, and education. A household counts as poor when it is deprived on at least 26% of the weighted indicators.

That means the IPM measures what a household lacks, not what it earns. Things like drinking water, sanitation, a pension, children in school, cooking with firewood or charcoal, adequate housing materials. A family with cash but no sewage system and a dirt-floor house can still count.

The second measure is monetary poverty: whether household income falls below the poverty line. The INE published a poverty map for this in 2025, built with the [World Bank](https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2025/10/16/mapping-a-new-future-for-poverty-reduction-in-paraguay), which combines the 2022 Census with the 2023 household survey.

The two measures don’t agree on who is worst off. That’s the main reason most articles on this topic leave readers confused, so this one covers both, starting with the IPM because it is the only one that ranks districts one by one.

## The poorest cities in Paraguay, ranked

These are the ten districts with the highest multidimensional poverty, based on the INE’s July 2026 release as reported by [Agencia IP](https://www.ip.gov.py/ip/2026/07/31/segun-ine-porcentaje-mas-elevado-de-la-pobreza-multidimensional-se-concentra-en-zonas-del-chaco/), Paraguay’s state news agency, and national dailies.

| Rank | District | Department | Multidimensional poverty |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Puerto Pinasco | Presidente Hayes | 82.2% |
| 2 | Teniente Esteban Martínez | Presidente Hayes | 78.3% |
| 3 | Teniente 1º Manuel Irala Fernández | Presidente Hayes | 75.3% |
| 4 | General José María Bruguez | Presidente Hayes | about 70% |
| 5 | Mariscal José Félix Estigarribia | Boquerón | 64.0% |
| 6 | Itacuá | Concepción | 61.2% |
| 7 | Alto Verá | Itapúa | 60.2% |
| 8 | Boquerón | Boquerón | 59.6% |
| 9 | Bahía Negra | Alto Paraguay | 59.0% |
| 10 | Cerro Corá | Amambay | 55.2% |

Two notes on the table. Outlets reported Bruguez at either 69.5% or 69.8%, so it’s shown as roughly 70%. And the INE release doesn’t publish population figures alongside the ranking, so they’re given in the profiles below only where a reliable number exists.

The gap from top to bottom is over 81 percentage points, and the ranking is lopsided: the poorest districts are in the thinly settled west, with a second cluster in the eastern north and southeast.

## The Chaco districts

![Aerial photo of intersecting dirt roads and fields in Tubarão, Brazil, showcasing the rural landscape.](https://33travels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/dirt-road.jpeg)

**1. Puerto Pinasco (Presidente Hayes, 82.2%).** More than eight in ten households here are deprived on enough indicators to count as poor. The district has the worst score in the country, and the INE’s own summary of the Chaco districts points to the same causes: missing drinking water and sanitation, and low schooling.

**2. Teniente Esteban Martínez (Presidente Hayes, 78.3%).** A small district, with fewer than 3,500 residents on any recent count. When a district is this small, a few indigenous communities or a few large ranches can swing the whole average.

**3. Teniente 1º Manuel Irala Fernández (Presidente Hayes, 75.3%).** Same department, same pattern, and only 3 points behind the district above it.

**4. General José María Bruguez (Presidente Hayes, about 70%).** The fourth consecutive Presidente Hayes district in the ranking. Four of the top five districts share one department, which tells you this is a regional problem and not a local one.

**5. Mariscal José Félix Estigarribia (Boquerón, 64.0%).** This is the biggest district of the group by area, on the Trans-Chaco highway. It also lost territory: in recent years, the new district of Boquerón (rank 8) was carved out of it.

**8. Boquerón (Boquerón, 59.6%).** A newly created municipality, formed by [Law 6688](https://www.bacn.gov.py/leyes-paraguayas/9504/ley-n-6688-crea-el-municipio-de-boquer-n-en-el-xvi-departamento-de-boquer-n-y-una-municipalidad-con-asiento-en-la-colonia-de-neuland) with its seat in the Neuland colony. One estimate puts it near 18,000 people, though that is not a census figure. It sits just below the two eastern districts that follow Mariscal Estigarribia in the ranking.

What links the Chaco districts is what the INE highlights in its own findings: missing drinking water and sanitation, and low schooling.

## The eastern districts

![Idyllic village landscape with rolling hills, trees, and a church spire under a clear blue sky.](https://33travels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/rural-village.jpeg)

**6. Itacuá (Concepción, 61.2%).** The poorest district in the eastern region. Itacuá is in the north of the Región Oriental, the other pocket where the INE sees critical figures. National press coverage gives the rate but little else, and no population figure is published with the ranking.

**7. Alto Verá (Itapúa, 60.2%).** Alto Verá has the best-documented profile of any district on this list. It has 11,503 residents (2022 Census) over 1,114 square kilometers, with about 17 recognized indigenous communities. It is 95 km from Encarnación and 369 km from Asunción, and the paved road ends at the town center. More than 45% of its territory is part of the San Rafael Natural Reserve. President Santiago Peña [called it](https://www.abc.com.py/politica/2026/07/30/alto-vera-cartes-le-dio-mucha-atencion-durante-su-gobierno-dijo-pena-pero-sigue-siendo-uno-de-los-distritos-mas-pobres/) “one of the poorest districts in Paraguay.” Its unmet basic needs rate is 47%, the highest in Itapúa, driven by missing sanitation infrastructure (24.4%) and lack of access to education (23.2%).

**9. Bahía Negra (Alto Paraguay, 59.0%).** Technically a Chaco district too, in the far north on the Paraguay River by the Brazilian border. Alto Paraguay is also one of the two departments the World Bank flagged for monetary poverty, so this one scores badly on both measures.

**10. Cerro Corá (Amambay, 55.2%).** Amambay is on the Brazilian border. Cerro Corá is the district around the national park where Francisco Solano López was killed in 1870, which ended the Paraguayan War. A history lesson in a district that now sits near the bottom of the poverty table.

Just outside the top ten is Itanará, in Canindeyú, at 54.4%, which fills out the eastern-north pattern.

## The monetary poverty picture

Switch to income and the order changes. The district with the highest monetary poverty rate is **Paso Barreto**, in Concepción department, at 53.3%, which is about 2,230 of its roughly 4,200 residents. The district doesn’t appear in the multidimensional top ten.

Life there, as [Última Hora reported](https://www.ultimahora.com/aislamiento-y-desempleo-asi-se-vive-en-el-distrito-mas-pobre-del-pais), is a set of small, specific constraints:

- Paso Barreto is about 500 km from Asunción. All three roads into it are dirt, and heavy rain can cut it off.
- Income comes from subsistence farming, home gardens and occasional ranch work. Formal jobs are scarce and most people have no health insurance.
- A pulp plant nearby raised hopes but has not changed the local economy.
- The local health unit closes at 3 p.m.
- Some schools lack kitchens or dining areas, and many graduates leave because there is no work.
- Within the district, the indigenous community of Vy’a Renda, about 120 km away, has roughly 200 people with no shops or formal jobs. Many homes lack electricity, families often eat once or twice a day, and the school only goes through ninth grade.

At department scale, the World Bank’s map found Alto Paraguay and San Pedro closest to 50% monetary poverty. In parts of Central and the capital, fewer than one in ten people are poor by income. Nationally, the poverty rate fell by more than 30 percentage points between 2003 and 2024, so the problem is shrinking everywhere and still concentrated in the same places.

Why the two lists differ: the IPM weights services, housing and schooling, which the remote Chaco districts lack, while the monetary map weights income, where districts like Paso Barreto, with almost no formal employment, do worst. Neither list is wrong. They answer different questions.

## The other end of the scale

The contrast is stark. The lowest multidimensional poverty rates belong to **Fernando de la Mora (0.9%)**, **Lambaré (1.3%)** and **Villa Elisa (1.6%)**, all in the Asunción metro area, followed by San Lorenzo, then Asunción itself at 2.5%. Puerto Pinasco’s rate is roughly 90 times Fernando de la Mora’s.

Nationally, the INE’s most common deprivation is inadequate garbage disposal (42.3% of the population), followed by cooking with firewood or charcoal (28.6%) and no pension (19.8%). Rural versus urban shows the whole story in two numbers: 90.9% of rural residents lack adequate garbage disposal against 19.9% in cities, and 61.9% of rural residents cook with wood or charcoal against 13.3% in cities.

For a traveler, the practical reading is simple: services thin out fast once you leave Asunción’s metro belt. Alto Verá, with a road paved only to the town center, is the template for what the rest of the list looks like.

## FAQ

**What is the poorest city in Paraguay?** By multidimensional poverty, Puerto Pinasco, with 82.2% of households poor. By monetary poverty, Paso Barreto in Concepción, with 53.3%.

**What is the poorest department in Paraguay?** It depends on the measure. For monetary poverty, the World Bank’s map points to Alto Paraguay and San Pedro, both close to 50%. For multidimensional poverty, Presidente Hayes holds four of the five worst districts.

**Why do the rankings differ between sources?** They measure different things. The IPM counts household deprivations in services, housing, education and work. The monetary map counts income against a poverty line. A district can fail one test far worse than the other.

**Is Asunción poor?** No. At 2.5% multidimensional poverty it is among the five least deprived districts in the country.

**Where does the data come from?** The IPM comes from the INE’s 2022 Census, released district by district in July 2026. The monetary map comes from the INE with World Bank support, using the 2022 Census and the 2023 household survey.