The coverage of Seguro Popular, which provides basic medical health and preventive services and protection to people without health coverage (see chapter on addressing the health challenges), has also widened to provide universal coverage in 2012. These programmes have led to a reduction of extreme poverty, while at the same time supporting access of the poor to education and health services. Moreover, they have contributed to a reduction of longstanding wide regional disparities in access to basic services. Estimates from the Consejo Nacional de Evaluacion de la Polftica de Desarrollo Social (CONEVAL) indicate that in 2010,51.3% of the total population (equivalent to 57.7 million individuals) were in patrimony poverty conditions, i.e. they did not have sufficient income to satisfy their food, health, education, housing, clothing and public transportation needs (Figure 2.1).1 That count reached its highest point in 1996 after the 1994-95 tequila crisis, when 69% of the population was classified as poor.