A poll of households by the National Statistics and Census Institute seems to indicate that poverty stubbornly refuses to go away in the country in crushing the hopes of one fifth of the population.

Although the data looks good on paper, 20.6% in 2012 as opposed to 21.6% last year, the statisticians are quick to point out that the seeming change for the better is within the margin for error of the survey and just may be an illusion.

At best, according to Planning Minister Robero Gallardo, it may indicate a trend beginning to seep into the economy. If so, it is too early to break out the champagne and strawberries.

State of the Nation’s Natalia Morales says that it may take at least a couple more years to detect if it constitutes a trend. Meanwhile the disparity between the rich and poor appears to be growing.

The low end of the spectrum makes an average of 50,491 colones per person monthly, less than students often pay for an apartment near a university in the Central Valley.

At the other end of the spectrum, a person can expect to receive an average of 913,175 monthly — nearly a million colones. That comes out to be 18 times what the lowest sector makes per person per month.

Again, the geographical factor raises its dragonlike head. Readers have seen how the technological gap affects less populated areas, compared with the half of the population that live in the Central Valley, where a high percentage of households have at least one cell phone.

Poverty is slightly higher in Guanacaste province, the mountainous area of the south and the part of the central Pacific coast around Puntarenas.

It diminished in the Limon area, a strip along the northern border with Nicaragua and the more prosperous Central Valley. Morales explains that part of the improvement has been an increase in income for the lowest section of the economy.

Even meager government welfare, small as it is, can be a life saver to poor families. Maria Elena Gonzalez of the census bureau notes that welfare accounts for 12% of the income for lowest level families.