The distribution component explains the increase of poverty during 1995-2000, whereas the growth component explains the rise of poverty during the period 2000-05, and its subsequent decline after 2005 (Amarante, Colafranceschi and Vigorito, 2011). The current levels indicate, in part, a mean reversion to pre-crisis values of poverty and inequality. The poverty headcount and the extreme poverty indicators suggest that, notwithstanding the improvement, there is a large share of highly vulnerable people that fall below national poverty lines. Alternative poverty measures, such as the Poverty Gap Index,1 which provides a normalised measurement with respect to a poverty line, illustrate a similar evolution for Uruguay.