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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 2003from 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 datafrom 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 |
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