Remittance Recipients in Guatemala: A Socioeconomic Profile

This analytic brief presents the results of a quantitative analysis of the socioeconomic characteristics of the beneficiaries of international remittances in Guatemala. The analysis is based on household survey data from the 2014 Encuesta de Condiciones de Vida (ENCOVI, for its Spanish acronym), which was carried out by the National Institute of Statistics of the Republic of Guatemala. The survey has a sample size of 11,536 households (54,822 individuals) and is representative at the country, urban and rural level as well as for all departments of Guatemala.

Some notable findings of this brief include:

• Almost one of every 10 Guatemalans benefits from remittances;
• 68% of remittance recipients are women;
• Female-headed households receive monthly amounts of remittances that are on average 30% higher than those received by male-headed households;
• 88% of recipient households can be classified as poor or at risk of falling into poverty;
• On average, remittances constitute 44% of the total monthly household income of remittance recipient households. This share is even greater among rural, female-led and indigenous households, as well as among households led by adolescents or young adults;
• Working-age remittance recipients are more likely to work as microentrepreneurs and less likely to be salaried employees than the working population at large.