Beneath the street-children phenomenon lies a mass of less visible suffering, characterized by the stunted lives of child workers, the terror of child prostitution, and the poverty of indigenous children and children in peasant communities. Seventy percent of the Latin American population and 57 percent of the poor now live in urban areas. These figures sharply contrast with the world's other developing regions where the majority of children live in rural areas. It is in cities that the relative deprivation of living standards and social rights is most acute. The precarious situation in which the majority of Latin American children are growing up has been further aggravated by the policies of economic adjustment adopted by most governments in response to the debt crisis, the major economic problem of the 1980s.
Studies show that impoverishment has hit families with the most children the hardest.
Reduced spending on social services and falling family incomes have a negative impact on the quality of care that can be offered to children in extreme poverty. As a consequence, infant mortality continues to be a problem in the region. This rate is six times higher than in the United States and Canada. Easily prevented diseases like diarrhea and respiratory infections, along with malnutrition, are the principal causes of these childhood deaths. It is estimated that four million children under five die each year from diarrhea.