About Nicaragua

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A Profile of Nicaragua

Land and People

Nicaragua has just over 5 million people in 121,428 square kilometers (75,892 square miles). It is the largest of the five Central American republics, but has the smallest population.

Relief Map of Nicaragua

96% of Nicaraguans are Spanish-speaking mestizos. 3% are of the indigenous Miskito, Sumo and Rama peoples. The remaining 1% are English-speaking blacks, decendants of British slaves brought to Nicaragua centuries ago.

The country is divided into 17 departments (i.e., states or provinces), including the two Autonomous Regions of the Atlantic Coast. The departments are subdivided into 151 municipalities.

Nicaragua Departments Map

One third of the homes are headed by single mothers.

Many Nicaraguas live with insecure property rights. Almost 80% of land in Nicaragua is not registered.

Health

Over a million people live with no health care at all. Malnutrition among children is estimated at 40%. In Nicaraguan homes, poverty reduces the daily diet, often to one meal a day. The poor often only get 60-70% of the protien and calories they need, reducing their capacity to work, and further jeopardizing their economic situation.

The population growth rate is 2.8%. This means that roughly 10,000 babies are born a month. Half the population is under 16 years old, and a quarter is under 6.

Infant mortality is 50 out of a thousand, and 60 more children out of a thousand will not see their fifth birthday. Life expectancy in Nicaragua is 67 years, slightly lower than the Latin American average of 69 years.

Nicaragua needs 400,000 more houses than it has, and two thirds of the population does not have access to adequate sewer services. 40% does not have clean drinking water.

There is a high level of domestic violence. 29% of women report having been abused physically or sexually, while the real rate is probably far higher.

Education

Illiteracy is at 34%, though in 1990, it was 17%. In the Autonomous Regions on the Atlantic Coast, the situation is even worse, as 43% of people over ten years old are illiterate. In the rural parts of the country, 50% of men and 60% of women cannot read.

The poor have an average of only 3.1 years of education. More than 15% of the population (800,000 boys and girls) does not attend school.

In 1993, annual government education spending per student was $43, but in 1996, it was $34, and in 1998, $9.

Natural and Unnatural Disasters

Nicaragua’s geology, climate, and location have made it the victim of differnt kinds of disasters: volcanic erruptions, earthquakes, floods and droughts. Such disasters accelerate the cycle of poverty.

This same poverty leads to environmental destruction, as poor campesinos take whatever measures they can to keep their families fed. This leads to deforestation, reduced fish and fauna populations, dried-up rivers, water pollution, and soil erosion.

With 82% of the population living in poverty, many people are migrating to the cities (or to Costa Rica) in search of security and opportunity. Hurricanes Joan, Mitch and Michelle accelerated this process.

Economy

From the early 1990s until the fall of 2001, Nicaragua was considered the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti. According to the World Bank, as cited by USAID, Nicaragua is now the poorest, with an average per capita annual income of $430. The UN’s World Food Program estimates the per capita income lower still, at $300. Half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. On the Atlantic Coast, the figure is three quarters of the population.

In 1995, Nicaragua had a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.611 and came in 109th on the list of 174 countries. In 1998, according to the UN’s Human Development program, the HDI had fallen to 0.547, and Nicaragua was in 126th place.

Annual government spending on basic social services (including primary education, basic health, water, reproductive health, and nutrition) is $19 per person. This contrasts sharply with the Latin American average of $86 per person.

The economically-active population is made up of 1.2 million people (just under a quarter of the population). The unemployment rate is 62% on the Pacific side of the nation, and 75% on the Atlantic side. However, official statistics like this do not factor in the “informal economy,” which is far more a part of many Nicaraguan’s lives than the “formal” economy. Many formally unemployed people work in a cash economy for subsistence wages, and are widely referred to as the “underemployed.”

Many also move to Costa Rica or the U.S. to work. They send back roughly $700 million yearly, which is substantially more than Nicaragua receives in foreign aid.

The Debt

As the year 2000 began, the external debt was $6.5 billion. This is over $1,000 for every man, woman, and child in Nicaragua. At this point, the Nicaraguan government cannot even keep up with payments on the interest, as it compounds steadily. The debt is currently twice Nicaragua’s gross domestic product.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have imposed “structural adjustment” programs on Nicaragua that divert funds from education, health, and infrastructure programs to debt payment. This benefits wealthy lending institutions and foreign governments, and hurts impoverished Nicaraguans. The economic crisis in Nicaragua is far more severe than the current one in Argentina, whose per capita income is fourteen times that of Nicaragua’s.

From The CEPAD Report 30th Anniversary Edition

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