San Salvador, Jan. 27 (EFE).- The economic situation has positioned itself, for the second consecutive year, as the main problem for Salvadorans, ahead of security and gangs, according to the results of a survey presented this Tuesday by representatives of the Jesuit University Public Opinion Institute (Iudop). "When evaluating the best and worst things that happened in 2025, the population maintains a clear stance that security is perceived as the main achievement, while the economy is recognized as the biggest problem," said Iliana Álvarez, director of Iudop, which is part of the Central American University (UCA), during the presentation. The study, which evaluates the country's general situation in 2025, indicated that 28.4% of the population considers the "main problem El Salvador currently faces" to be the economy, while the high cost of living and unemployment reached 8.4% and 8.1%, respectively. In total, problems related to the country's economic situation accounted for 47.8% of the opinions of citizens surveyed. Regarding the cost of living, 63.8% considered that it increased, while 38.7% indicated that unemployment also rose. 58.2% of people stated that the economic situation has led their families to stop consuming certain foods, with 32.4% saying it was meat and 14.9% milk. Security, an achievement As for the main achievement, 62.7% stated that it is security, 6.7% is the fight against gangs, and 1.7% is the continuity of the state of exception, approved in March 2022 after a surge in murders and which suspends constitutional guarantees. However, 2.5% maintained that the "state of exception and the imprisonment of innocent people" is a problem. The state of exception will be four years old in March of this year and has left more than 90,000 arrests, the death of some 470 people in prisons, and more than 6,400 complaints of abuses, such as arbitrary detentions and torture, according to denunciations by humanitarian organizations. "In the overall balance, we say that security weighs more than economic difficulties. By the end of 2025, 61% of the population thought that the country's situation was better than the previous year," Álvarez stated. The Iudop survey was conducted between Dec. 2 and 12, 2025, with a national sample of 1,268 interviews, a 95% confidence level, and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7%.
