What are the ten poorest countries in the western hemisphere?

Answer 1

The Western Hemisphere include all North, Central and South America, plus some parts of Western Africa and Southern Europe. But usually when we talk about the Western Hemisphere we mean the Americas.

There is an indicator called the Human Development Index, it is a combination of GDP PPP per capita, literacy rate, life expectancy and gross enrolment ratio. Each year since 1990 the Human Development Report has published the human development index (HDI) which looks beyond GDP to a broader definition of well-being. The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP, income). The index is not in any sense a comprehensive measure of human development. It does not, for example, include important indicators such as gender or income inequality nor more difficult to measure concepts like respect for human rights and political freedoms. What it does provide is a broadened prism for viewing human progress and the complex relationship between income and well-being.

1.-Haiti (0.532)

2.-Nicaragua (0.699)

3.-Guatemala (0.704)

4.-Guyana (0.729)

5.-Bolivia (0.729)

6.-Honduras (0.732)

7.-El Salvador (0.747)

8.-Paraguay (0.761)

9.-Jamaica (0.766)

10.-Suriname (0.769)

However we can't measure poverty in just one indicator (even when the HDI is a combination of four indicators); and you see that in the ranking (is obvious that Guatemala is not poorer than Honduras). So we have to combine more indicators. One of them is the income PPP per capita, the division of the country's total income divided by its population:

1.-Haiti: $1,240

2.-Nicaragua: $2,654

3.-Guyana: $4,161

4.-Honduras: $4,168

5.-Bolivia: $4,448

6.-Paraguay: $4,551

7.-Guatemala: $4,882

8.-El Salvador: $7,439

9.-Ecuador: $7,720

10.-Belize: $7,914

So finally we can conclude that this is the top10:

1.-Haiti

2.-Nicaragua

3.-Guayana

4.-Honduras

5.-Bolivia

6.-Guatemala

7.-El Salvador

8.-Paraguay

9.-Suriname

10.-Belize Haiti