Mexico City, April 13 (teleSUR-RHC) At least half of the 40 million children and teenagers in Mexico are living in poverty, the United Nations children's agency reports.

The annual report by UNICEF's Mexican office for 2014 was undertaken to demonstrate the levels of poverty and social rights of children. The document, “reveals that 21.2 million children and adolescents (53.8 percent) were found in 2012 in a condition of poverty and 4.7 million (11.9 percent) in extreme poverty.”

Investigators also found that indigenous children were more likely to be living in poverty. “Indigenous children continue being the most vulnerable population and need to be especially protected, with strategies that involve diverse sectors,” the inquiry says.

Children aged less than one year have the least access to health service, the report explains, with 27.5 percent with no access at all. While 1.5 million under-five suffers chronic malnutrition, a figure that rises to one out of three children in rural areas.

Mexican pensioners, too, are vulnerable to poverty with one recent revelation showing they have been forced to come up with a novel way to supplement their low monthly state allowance, as around 22,000 across the country now volunteer as bag-packers at supermarket check-outs.

Mexico, Latin America's second largest economy, only provides 25 percent of its 11 million retired people, aged 66 or above, with a pension.