- According to data from the 2005 living standards measurement survey, 48.3 per cent of the total population (just over 5 million people) live in poverty, with 17 per cent living in extreme poverty.
- This is further complicated by the population’s extreme vulnerability to natural disasters, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, drought, flooding and hurricanes. Hurricane Felix, for example, which hit in September 2007, affected 33,000 families in 295 communities, leaving over 100 people dead and nearly 80 per cent of the infrastructure destroyed.
- Nicaragua has widespread underemployment, one of the highest degrees of income inequality in the world, and the third lowest per capita income in the Western Hemisphere.
- Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 45% of the population living on less than $1 per day. 3 out of every 4 (75.8%) live on less than $2.00 / day.
- 65% of population is un-and-underemployed.
- Less than 25% of the economically active population has the security of a fixed salary.
- Average plate of food (rice, beans, tortilla, meat) costs between 30-50 cordobas ($2.00 -$2.50).
- Rise in food prices in Nicaragua have increased 45% over the last nine months.
- Rice has doubled in price, price of corn tortillas up 54% from Jan. ‘07 to Jan. ’08.
Issues facing children in Nicaragua
- Five of the country’s 17 departments have chronic malnutrition rates of over 30 per cent – and the rate exceeds 50 per cent in the regions where most of Nicaragua’s indigenous people live.
- Approximately 40 per cent of the population has no access to health services (75 per cent for the indigenous and Afro-descendent population), with the remaining 60 per cent covered by low-quality services.
- A third of the population still had no access to sustainable sources of drinking water in 2007, a figure that rises to 53 per cent in rural areas and 79 per cent in the autonomous regions. Although it is reported that 75.8 per cent of the population has access to sanitary services, a low level of latrine use has been observed.
- 24 per cent of children are not in the school system, and child labour affects approximately 10 per cent of children and adolescents. Exclusion from the school system mainly affects rural indigenous populations and Afro-descendent families, as well as children who have disabilities or live in the streets.
- The annual HIV/AIDS incidence has increased from 4.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2003, to 12.5 in 2008. In recent years, the infection ratio between men and women has tilted increasingly towards women. Sixty per cent of adolescents who contracted HIV in 2008 were women. Approximately half of adolescents do not know how to prevent HIV.
Education
- According the Ministry of Education, there are over 500,000 children not in school.
- 21 out of every 100 children leaves school in the first grade.
- Only 35% of preschool-age children are in school.
- Average education level is 5.6 years—only 3.6 years in rural areas.
- Only 4 out of ten children enroll in high school and only 40% of those graduate.
- Teachers’ earn only half the average salary of the rest of Nicaraguan’s workers.
- Only 60% of those who enroll in primary school finish – out of the 87 % that enroll.
- 33% non-literacy rate, one out of every three Nicaraguans is non-literate.
(Source Information: UNICEF.org, The CIA World Factbook, U.S. Department of State, Area Handbook of the US Library of Congress, and The State of the World’s Children 2008)
