Quito, February 6 (RHC-teleSUR), -- Ecuador's National Institute of Statistics and Censuses reported Friday that the country's multidimensional poverty rate dropped 16.5 percent between 2009 and 2015, translating into 1.9 million Ecuadoreans who no longer live in poverty. 

The reduction of both urban and rural poverty has been one of the major objectives of the Correa government since his arrival to the presidency in 2007. The country is working to eliminate extreme poverty completely, having already successfully done so in the capital region.

Jose Rosero, director of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, said the multidimensional poverty rate was reduced to 35 percent in December 2015 from 51.5 percent in December of 2009.

Instead of just raw income or consumption, the multidimensional poverty measures four components: education; work and social security; health, water, and food; as well as housing and living environment. 

Ecuador adopted the multidimensional poverty metric two years ago in order to better evaluate the impact of social programs and investments. The metric is also used in Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Costa Rica and El Salvador and is generally viewed by policy makers as a more effective way of measuring poverty.