Haiti Facts
Issue date: 1/27/10 Section: News
Haiti is a Caribbean nation located on the western third of the island of Hispaniola that it shares with the Dominican Republic. It is located between Cuba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.
• The population is estimated at 9,035,536.
• The capital city is Port-au-Prince.
• The official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole.
• The literacy rate, the percentage of the population over the age of 15 who can read and write, is 52.9 percent.
• Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 80 percent of the total population living below the poverty line. Over half the population lives in abject poverty.
• Two-thirds of the population depends on agriculture with the majority of these people relying on subsistence farming, leaving them vulnerable to natural disasters.
• The official unemployment rate is not available; however, unemployment is widespread and underemployment is as well. Two-thirds of the labor force does not have formal jobs.
• 66 percent of the jobs in the labor market are agriculture based, 25 percent in services and 9 percent in industry.
• Agriculture products include coffee, mangoes, sugarcane, rice, corn and wood.
• Major exports include apparel, manufactured goods, oils, cocoa, mangoes and coffee.
• Major imports include food, manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, fuels and raw materials.
• Haiti's largest trading partner is the United States.
• Natural resources found in Haiti include bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, marble and hydropower.
• Since 2004 the United Nations has had over 8,000 peacekeepers stationed in Haiti as a part of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTA) in order to maintain civil order.
Source: CIA World Factbook: Haiti. (2009, November 27).
• The population is estimated at 9,035,536.
• The capital city is Port-au-Prince.
• The official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole.
• The literacy rate, the percentage of the population over the age of 15 who can read and write, is 52.9 percent.
• Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 80 percent of the total population living below the poverty line. Over half the population lives in abject poverty.
• Two-thirds of the population depends on agriculture with the majority of these people relying on subsistence farming, leaving them vulnerable to natural disasters.
• The official unemployment rate is not available; however, unemployment is widespread and underemployment is as well. Two-thirds of the labor force does not have formal jobs.
• 66 percent of the jobs in the labor market are agriculture based, 25 percent in services and 9 percent in industry.
• Agriculture products include coffee, mangoes, sugarcane, rice, corn and wood.
• Major exports include apparel, manufactured goods, oils, cocoa, mangoes and coffee.
• Major imports include food, manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, fuels and raw materials.
• Haiti's largest trading partner is the United States.
• Natural resources found in Haiti include bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, marble and hydropower.
• Since 2004 the United Nations has had over 8,000 peacekeepers stationed in Haiti as a part of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTA) in order to maintain civil order.
Source: CIA World Factbook: Haiti. (2009, November 27).
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