Based on the official methodology for the multidimensional measurement of poverty in Mexico made by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), it is estimated that in 2008, 20.8 million girls and boys under 18 years of age, 19.5 percent of Mexico's total population, were in multidimensional poverty.

Out of the 20.8 million children in multidimensional poverty in 2008, 5.1 million were under extreme multidimensional poverty. Additionally, 11.2 million girls and boys were vulnerable due to social deprivation, and 1.8 million were vulnerable due to income. In the same year, the total number of children not deemed multidimensional poor nor vulnerable due to income or deprivation was 5.2 million.

The average number of deprivations suffered by those girls and boys under 18 in multidimensional poverty in 2008 was 2.6, classified as follows: 10.5 percent had educational gap; 40.8 had no access to healthcare; 73.6 percent had no access to social security; 22.8 percent had deprivation in the quality and spaces of their homes; 22.8 percent had no access to basic services at home, and 25 percent had no access to food.

At state level, the entities with the highest percentage of girls and boys under 18 in multidimensional poverty were the following: Chiapas with 82.9 percent; Guerrero with 76.0 percent; Puebla with 71.6 percent; Oaxaca with 68.8 percent and Tlaxcala with 66.1 percent.

Among the advantages CONEVAL’s official methodology for the multidimensional measurement of poverty brings is the possibility to know the entire Mexican population’s social situation.

Therefore, if we take into account that First Article of the Convention on the Rights of the Child deems a child every human being under the age of 18, and that the DIF uses a less disaggregated classification, that is, it deems an infant a person under the age of five; children as people between the age of 6 and 11, and teenagers people between the age of 12 and 17. Out of the 20.8 million girls and boys under the age of 18 in multidimensional poverty in 2008, 6.6 million were infants between the age of 0 and 5; 7.6 million were children between the age of 6 and 11, and 6.6 million were 12 to 17 year old teenagers.

The CONEVAL published the official methodology for the multidimensional measurement of poverty in Mexico on December 2009 and for its calculations it uses data from the 2008 National Household Income and Expense Survey Socioeconomic Conditions Module issued by the National Statistics and Geography Institute.