UNICEF Report on Children

Each year UNICEF publishes a report on the State of the World's Children. One of the features of the 2005 report on UNICEF's web site is a statistical tool which allows comparison of several statistics for multiple countries. Using that tool I pulled out a set of statistics on poverty and healthcare. The statistics set out below compare five Central American countries and the average of all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.


Infant Mortality per 1000 (2003)

Costa Rica -- 8
El Salvador -- 32
Guatemala -- 35
Honduras -- 32
Nicaragua -- 30
Latin America -- 27
and Caribbean

Under age 5 Mortality per 1000 (2003)

Costa Rica -- 10
El Salvador -- 36
Guatemala -- 47
Honduras -- 41
Nicaragua -- 38
Latin America -- 32
and Caribbean

Life Expectancy (2003)

Costa Rica -- 78
El Salvador -- 71
Guatemala -- 66
Honduras -- 69
Nicaragua -- 70
Latin America -- 70
and Caribbean

Adult Literacy Rate (2000)

Costa Rica -- 96%
El Salvador -- 79%
Guatemala -- 69%
Honduras -- 75%
Nicaragua -- 64%
Latin America -- 89%
and Caribbean

% of Population using improved
drinking water sources (2002)

Costa Rica -- 97%
El Salvador -- 82%
Guatemala -- 95%
Honduras -- 90%
Nicaragua -- 81%
Latin America -- 89%
and Caribbean

% of population using adequate
sanitation facilities (2002)

Costa Rica -- 92%
El Salvador -- 63%
Guatemala -- 61%
Honduras -- 68%
Nicaragua -- 66%
Latin America -- 75%
and Caribbean

Per Capita Income (US$)(2003)

Costa Rica -- $4280
El Salvador -- $2200
Guatemala -- $1910
Honduras -- $970
Nicaragua -- $730
Latin America -- $3311
and Caribbean

% of Population living below
$1 per day

Costa Rica -- 2%
El Salvador -- 31%
Guatemala -- 16%
Honduras -- 24%
Nicaragua -- 45%
Latin America -- 10%
and Caribbean

% of central government expenditures
allocated to health (2004)

Costa Rica -- 28%
El Salvador -- 5%
Guatemala -- 11%
Honduras -- 10%
Nicaragua -- 13%
Latin America -- 6%
and Caribbean

% of central government expenditure
allocated to education (2004)

Costa Rica -- 20%
El Salvador -- 24%
Guatemala -- 17%
Honduras -- 19%
Nicaragua -- 15%
Latin America -- 16%
and Caribbean


UNICEF's description of issues facing the children of El Salvador is at this link.