MEXICO CITY -- The number of people in Latin America who has improved their living standards to become part of the middle class has risen significantly in the past two decades, a UN report said Sunday.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said that in the years from 1990 to 2007, a total of 128 million people from 10 Latin American countries had moved up to the economic level categorized as middle class.

"The number of middle class households and their average income grew thanks to three factors -- higher GDP of countries, falling poverty and slight improvement in income distribution," said ECLAC.

"The aspiration of the people is to participate in this new consumer space at a level that allow them to be identified as being part of the middle class," it said.

The strongest growth was recorded in Brazil and Mexico where 28 million and 14 million people respectively moved up to the middle class during the years from 1990 to 2007.