Latin America is the region of the Americas where Romance languages, those derived from Latin, and in particularly Spanish and Portuguese, are primarily spoken.
Spanish is the predominant language in the majority of Latin American countries. Portuguese is spoken primarily in Brazil, the most populous country in the region. French is spoken in some countries of the Caribbean, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana and Haiti. Dutch is the official language of some Caribbean islands and in Suriname on the continent; however, as Dutch is a Germanic language, these territories are not considered part of Latin America.
Other European languages spoken in Latin America include: English, by some groups in Argentina, Belize, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico; German, in southern Brazil, southern Chile, Argentina, and German-speaking villages in northern Venezuela; Italian, in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and, to a lesser extent, Venezuela; and Welsh, in southern Argentina.
In several nations, especially in the Caribbean region, creole languages are spoken. The most widely-spoken creole language in the Caribbean and Latin America in general is Haitian Creole, the predominant language of Haiti; it is derived primarily from French and certain West African tongues with some Amerindian and Spanish influences as well. Creole languages of mainland Latin America, similarly, are derived from European languages and various African tongues.
Native American languages are widely spoken in Belize, Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay, and to a lesser degree, in Mexico, Ecuador, and Chile.
In absolute numbers, Mexico contains the largest population of indigenous-language speakers of any country in the Americas, surpassing those of the Amerindian-majority countries of Guatemala, Bolivia and the Amerindian-plurality country of Peru. In Latin American countries not named above, the population of speakers of indigenous languages is small or non-existent.
In Peru, Quechua is an official language, alongside Spanish and any other indigenous language in the areas where they predominate. In Ecuador, while holding no official status, the closely-related Quichua is a recognized language of the indigenous people under the country’s constitution; however, it is only spoken by a few groups in the country’s highlands.
In Bolivia, Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní hold official status alongside Spanish. Guarani is, along with Spanish, an official language of Paraguay, and is spoken by a majority of the population (who are, for the most part, bilingual), and it is co-official with Spanish in the Argentine province of Corrientes.
In Nicaragua, Spanish is the official language, but on the country’s Caribbean coast English and indigenous languages such as Miskito, Sumo, and Rama also hold official status. Colombia recognizes all indigenous languages spoken within its territory as official, though fewer than 1% of its population are native speakers of these.
Nahuatl is one of the 62 native languages spoken by indigenous people in Mexico, which are officially recognized by the government as “national languages” along with Spanish.
Trade Agreements
The major trade blocs or agreements in the region are Mercosur and the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Minor blocs or trade agreements are the G3, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). However, major reconfigurations are taking place along opposing approaches to integration and trade; Venezuela has officially withdrawn from both the CAN and G3 and it has been formally admitted into the Mercosur (pending ratification from the Brazilian and Paraguayan legislatures). The president-elect of Ecuador has manifested his intentions of following the same path. This bloc nominally opposes any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, although Uruguay has manifested its intention otherwise. On the other hand, Mexico is a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Chile and Peru has signed an FTA with the United States, and Colombia’s legislatures is awaiting its ratification by the US Senate.
The following tables list (in alphabetical order) all the countries in Latin America indicating Gross National Income (GNI), per capita income in current U.S. dollars—as used by the World Bank to classify countries according income—, Gross Domestic Product in PPP, a measurement of inequality through the Gini index (the higher the index the more unequal the income distribution is), the Human Development Index (HDI), the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), and the Quality-of-life index.
Table 1
| Country | GNI per capita (2006) current USD |
GDP per capita (PPP) (2006) USD |
Income equality (2001-04) Gini index |
Poverty Index (2005) HPI-1 % |
Annual economic growth (2007) % |
| Argentina | 5,150 | 12,046 | 51.3 | 4.1 | 7.5 |
| Bolivia | 1,100 | 3,829 | 60.1 | 13.6 | 3.9 |
| Brazil | 4,710 | 9,081 | 57.0 | 9.7 | 5.4 |
| Chile | 6,810 | 13,083 | 54.9 | 3.7 | 5.9 |
| Colombia | 3,120 | 6,218 | 58.6 | 7.9 | 7.5 |
| Costa Rica | 4,980 | 9,585 | 49.8 | 4.4 | 6 |
| Cuba | 3,500 | 4,100 | N/A | 4.7 | N/A |
| Dominican Republic | 3,667 | 6,412 | 51.6 | 10.5 | 8 |
| Ecuador | 2,910 | 6,973 | 53.6 | 8.7 | 2.7 |
| El Salvador | 2,680 | 5,530 | 52.4 | 15.1 | 4.2 |
| Guatemala | 2,590 | 4,438 | 55.1 | 22.5 | 4.8 |
| Haiti | 550 | 1,240 | 59.2 | 35.4 | 3.2 |
| Honduras | 1,270 | 3,818 | 53.8 | 16.5 | 5.4 |
| Mexico | 7,830 | 12,178 | 52.1 | 6.8 | 2.9 |
| Nicaragua | 930 | 2,515 | 43.1 | 17.9 | 4.2 |
| Panama | 5,000 | 9,204 | 56.1 | 8.0 | 8.5 |
| Paraguay | 1,657 | 4,191 | 58.4 | 8.8 | 5 |
| Peru | 2,980 | 7,081 | 52.0 | 11.6 | 8.9 |
| Uruguay | 5,310 | 10,578 | 44.9 | 3.5 | 5.2 |
| Venezuela | 6,070 | 11,150 | 48.2 | 8.8 | 8 |
Table 2
| Country | Human Develop. (2005) HDI |
Envirnm. Perfrm. (2008) EPI |
Quality of life (2005) index |
Motor veh. (2007) per 1,000 people |
Emissions per capita (2004) ton CO2 |
| Argentina | 0.869 (H) | 81.8 | 6.969 | 173 | 3.7 |
| Bolivia | 0.695 (M) | 64.7 | 5.492 | 52 | 0.8 |
| Brazil | 0.800 (H) | 82.7 | 6.470 | 118 | 1.8 |
| Chile | 0.867 (H) | 83.4 | 6.789 | 140 | 3.9 |
| Colombia | 0.791 (M) | 88.3 | 6.176 | 55 | 1.2 |
| Costa Rica | 0.846 (H) | 90.5 | 6.624 | 193 | 1.5 |
| Cuba | 0.838 (H) | 80.7 | N/A | 2 | 2.3 |
| Dominican Republic | 0.779 (M) | 83.0 | 5.630 | 111 | 2.2 |
| Ecuador | 0.772 (M) | 84.4 | 6.272 | 55 | 2.2 |
| El Salvador | 0.735 (M) | 77.2 | 6.164 | 64 | 0.9 |
| Guatemala | 0.689 (M) | 76.7 | 5.321 | 108 | 1.0 |
| Haiti | 0.529 (M) | 60.7 | 4.090 | 20 | 0.2 |
| Honduras | 0.700 (M) | 75.4 | 5.250 | 14 | 1.1 |
| Mexico | 0.829 (H) | 79.8 | 6.766 | 191 | 4.2 |
| Nicaragua | 0.710 (M) | 73.4 | 5.663 | 38 | 0.7 |
| Panama | 0.812 (H) | 83.1 | 6.361 | 102 | 1.8 |
| Paraguay | 0.755 (M) | 77.7 | 5.756 | 69 | 0.7 |
| Peru | 0.773 (M) | 78.1 | 6.216 | 54 | 1.1 |
| Uruguay | 0.852 (H) | 82.3 | 6.368 | 154 | 1.6 |
| Venezuela | 0.792 (M) | 80.0 | 6.089 | 120 | 6.6 |
GDP and PPP GDP statistics come from the International Monetary Fund with data as of 2006. Gini index, the Human Poverty Index HDI-1, the Human Development Index. The number of motor vehicles per capita come from the UNData base on-line. The EPI index comes from the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Quality-of-life index from The Economist Intelligence Unit.
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