fascinating site, louis; just what i was looking for. thanks for posting
it.
for 1998, HDI (a composite index of life expectancy, education, GDP):
globally (table 1):
Canada is 1st at .935; US is 3rd at .929; Cuba is 56th at .783; Sierra Leone
is 174th (last) at .252. Australia seems to be right behind the US in most
economic stats.
L.A. and Caribbean only (table 6):
Barbados 1st at .858; Cuba is 13th at .783; Haiti is 33rd (last) at .440.
i would have preferred to look at the HDI trends for each country (table 7:
75 thru 98), but i see that Cuba has data only for 1998. why is that?
yes, i see that Cuba is 3rd in HPI-1 (human poverty index) for developing
countries (table 4); US is only 18th in HPI-2 for OECDs (table 5).
"progress in survival" stats (table 9) show Cuba comparable to US and ahead
of all L.A. (Argentina usually the 2nd best):
1. life expectancy at birth (years):
1970-75: US 71.3; Cuba 70.7; Arg. 67.1
1995-00: US 76.7; Cuba 75.7; Arg. 72.9
2. infant mortality rate:
1970-75: US 20; Cuba 34; Arg. 59
1995-00: US 7; Cuba 7; Arg. 19
3. under 5 mortality rate:
1970-75: US 26; Cuba 43; Arg. 71
1995-00: US 8; Cuba 8; Arg. 22
4. don't survive to age 60:
1995-00: US 12.6; Cuba 13.4; Arg. 16.5
5. maternal mortality ratio:
1990-98: US 8; Cuba 27; Arg. 38
Cuba much improved!
food security and nutrition (table 23) - daily per capita supply of
calories:
Cuba: 1970 at 2640; 1997 at 2480.
what is causing the decrease? embargo? lack of Russian aid? won't that
affect cuban health stats unfavorably in the future?
norm
>You should go to the United Nations Human Development Indicators website
>for this information.
>
>http://www.undp.org/hdro/
>
>They have different sets of criteria. The one that seems most applicable to
>Cuba is what they call HP1, which is based on human poverty in developing
>countries. At the last time the measurements were taken in 1998, Cuba
>ranked 3rd in the world behind Uruguay and Costa Rica--both countries have
>long-standing social democratic safety nets modeled after the Scandanavian
>countries. If anything, Cuba's situation has improved over the past couple
>of years since the brunt of the 'emergency period' following the collapse
>of the USSR has already been absorbed.
>
>
>Louis Proyect
>Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
>
>
