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Statistics
Population & GDP | Literacy Rates

STATISTICAL PORTRAIT

The countries of Latin America may share a history, but they are not, by any means, like so many peas from the same pod. A few basic statistics will allow you to see how different these countries really are from one another.

SIZE: AREA, POPULATION, AND ECONOMY

In the first table, Brazil, Haiti, and the eighteen countries of Spanish America are ranked by land area (in thousands of square miles). The other measures of size are population (in millions) and gross domestic product (a measure of the size of the economy, in billions of U.S. dollars). Note the huge variations in size and the small populations of several countries when compared to their land area. Latin America is not, overall, a densely populated place. U.S. figures appear at the bottom for comparative purposes. Although roughly twice the size of the United States in area and population, Latin American economies are dwarfed by their northern neighbor's, the world's largest, many times larger in dollar volume than all Latin American economies combined.

LIVING STANDARDS AND DEVELOPMENT

In the second table, countries are ranked by life expectancy, an indicator of basic health conditions. But note the irregularities. Some countries have high average life expectancy and literacy rates despite modest average annual income levels (GDP per person). Other countries have done poorly at providing health care and education for all, despite relative overall wealth. Exercise caution in interpreting these figures, however. Living standards and development are not nearly so easily measured as land area and population. Many of the measures in the second table are averages, and averages can give false impressions. Note, for example, that one person earning $1 million a year plus nine homeless unemployed together have an "average yearly income" of $100,000 each! For another example, life expectancy and literacy commonly vary between men and women. Brazilian women live, on average, eight years longer than Brazilian men. Women's illiteracy is about 15 percent higher than men's illiteracy in Bolivia and Guatemala. Disparities also exist between regions of the same country and between cities and countryside across the board. Therefore, the figures provide, at best, a rough guide that conceals huge inequalities within each country.

From August 2004 WDI (World Development Indicators) on line database, compiled by the World Bank group. Population & GDP based on 2004

  Area
(sq. miles)
Population
(millions)
GDP
(billions)
Brazil 3,206 178.7 604.9
Argentina 1,100 38.2 151.5
Mexico 764 103.8 676.5
Peru 496 27.5 68.4
Colombia 440 45.3 97.4
Bolivia 424 9.0 8.8
Venezuela 352 26.1 109.3
Chile 292 16 94.1
Paraguay 157 5.8 7.1
Ecuador 107 13.2 30.3
Uruguay 68 3.4 13.1
Nicaragua 57 5.6 4.4
Cuba 44 11.4 no data
Guatemala 42 12.6 27.5
Honduras 42 7.1 7.4
Panama 29 3.0 13.8
Costa Rica 20 4.1 18.4
Dominican Republic 19 8.9 18.7
Haiti 11 8.6 3.5
El Salvador 8 6.7 15.8
Total Latin America 7,747 538.9 2,039
United States 3,617 293.5 11,700

Life expectancy based on 2003—from August 2004 WDI (World Development Indicators) on line database, compiled by the World Bank group. GDP Per capita in $US (based on year 2003)—from the UN Statistics Division on-line database of social indicators. Literacy Rates (% of population) based on 2002 & 2003 data—from the UN Human Development Index.

  Life Expectancy GDP per person Literacy Rates
Costa Rica 78.6 4,189 95.8
Cuba 76.9 2,762 96.9
Chile 76.4 4,523 95.7
Uruguay 75.4 3,274 97.7
Panama 75.0 3,400 91.9
Argentina 74.5 3,375 97.2
Venezuela 73.9 2,994 93.0
Mexico 73.6 5,945 90.3
Colombia 71.9 1,744 94.2
Ecuador 71.0 2,108 91.0
Paraguay 71.0 1,001 91.6
El Salvador 70.4 2,302 79.7
Peru 70.0 2,238 87.7
Nicaragua 68.8 750 76.7
Brazil 68.7 2,700 88.4
Dom. Rep. 67.1 2,408 87.7
Guatemala 66.1 1,963 69.1
Honduras 66.1 980 80.0
Bolivia 64.1 878 86.5
Haiti 51.9 300 51.9
United States 77.4 36,924 99