For Nayib Bukele, security was once the obvious measure of his government’s success. Now the country’s falling poverty rate and accelerating economy are giving his administration another result to point to. After decades of sluggish growth, El Salvador’s GDP expanded by 4% in 2025, while poverty declined sharply across several measures.
The improvement is significant in a country whose growth averaged only 2.1% a year between 2000 and 2024. Monetary poverty fell by 14.55% in 2025, representing 262,405 fewer people classified as poor than the previous year. Extreme poverty fell by 17.36%, while relative poverty declined by 13.05%. Multidimensional poverty also fell, with more than 12,000 households leaving that condition.
The figures strengthen Bukele’s economic case, but they also highlight the scale of the challenge ahead. El Salvador’s per-capita income remains just above $6,000, far below the levels cited for Spain and the United States, while investment, exports and productivity have historically lagged. The country’s recent growth is expected to moderate to around 3.5–3.7% in 2026, meaning that maintaining the downward trend in poverty will require more than a short-term acceleration.
For now, however, the security transformation appears to be creating economic opportunities that were harder to imagine a decade ago. Tourist arrivals reached 4.1 million in 2025, while tourism now accounts for 10% of GDP. The government’s next test will be turning this momentum into lasting growth through greater foreign investment, stronger institutions, education and higher productivity—so that the decline in poverty becomes a durable trend rather than a temporary improvement.