People walk through the Oscar Freire street shopping district in Sao Paulo, Brazil. AP Photo/Andre Penner
Latin American middle classes in recent decades
According to CEPAL (Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) calculations, between 1990 and 2010 the middle classes in the region increased by nearly 70 million households. In recent years social policies have been characterised by a targeting of lower income groups and public policy priority has been the expansion of primary education, with the goal of achieving universal reach.
